Dynamic sophomores lead Dust Devils to blowout win

With a crushing defense and breakout performances from some of its sophomores, Santa Cruz turned what looked early on like it would be a back-and-forth game into a blowout by the third quarter and improved to 2-3 with a 53-7 victory over the Rams (1-3).

“We know where we could be at, and we’re still waiting to see what we’re capable of,” Cortez said. “This is expected. We just have to get better every week, and not worry about what we did the previous week. We have a bigger picture, bigger goal in mind.”

Santa Cruz sophomore quarterback Nathan Harris had his best game at the position, throwing three touchdowns to three different receivers, while fellow sophomore Jonathan Ramos kept the first-down markers moving with a combination of creative moves and strong breaking of tackles.

After the two teams traded turnovers on downs to start the game, the Dust Devils strung together some big plays, moving down the field with ease en route to Harris’ first touchdown of the night to sophomore Oryan Williams.

The Rams answered right back, as multiple times quarterback Abraham Moreno threw the ball up where only Kegan Ragels could find it, and the big receiver jumped high enough to bring the ball down. The second time, he got a 9-yard touchdown to tie the game.

Santa Cruz wasn’t bothered, though. Its next two drives ended with passing touchdowns to freshman Joaquin Ramos and sophomore Shon Luis Banda, who managed to get wide open to give the Dust Devils a 19-7 halftime lead.

“It felt amazing having them so wide open,” Harris said. “They were playing up on us, so we knew right off the bat that we were gonna throw on them.”

It was all Dust Devils from that point on, as they started to wear down the Ram defense with powerful runs. Jonathan Ramos got the bulk of the yardage, even if he didn’t score. It was senior Max Rodriguez who finished off two drives with rushing touchdowns, instead.

“(Ramos) is getting better vision-wise,” Cortez said. “He’s running with his head up and not dragging his feet.”

By the time sophomore Nicolas Manuel found his opportunity and returned an interception for a touchdown, Santa Cruz was up 40-7 with a defense that wasn’t allowing anything that didn’t come from penalties.

In the fourth quarter, the clock mostly ran down before there was any more scoring, yet the Dust Devils still managed to get 13 more points. This time, Eric Lucio got a rushing touchdown before Manuel got an offensive score — to go with his pick-six — as time ran out on the game.

Jonathan Ramos finished with 158 yards rushing, 20 yards receiving and one interception. Harris threw 12-23 for 208 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. The two showed signs of what could become quite the dynamic duo for years to come.

“I feel like by next year or our senior year, we should be winning state championships,” Harris said. “Our team mentality is to come out here and play hard all the way through the fourth quarter, and if we do that we can win every game out.”

Santa Cruz now enters a three-game road trip, with its first stop at Chandler Prep. The Dust Devils won’t return home until their regular season finale Oct. 28 against Sequoia Pathway.