By Jondi Gumz
A shout out to the Soquel High School Knights, the first football team in Santa Cruz County to win a state championship.
On Dec. 6, the Knights, coached by former NFL safety Dwight Lowery, defeated Jurupa Hills, 28-7, at Pasadena City College to claim the 4-AA title.
Soquel has fewer than 1,000 students. Jurupa Hills has more than 2,000.
“Soquel is our only Nor-Cal and State Champ,” said Aptos High Athletic Director Mark Dorfman.
“Both Aptos (‘18) and Santa Cruz (‘19) reached the Nor-Cal Championship Game, but both lost.”
The Soquel Knights played 15 games and earned 13 wins.
They finished the season ranked 70th in the state by MaxPreps.
In their playoff run, they recorded two shutouts, against Monterey and Christopher.
The Football team did not earn the League crown because they lost to Salinas, which has three times the enrollment, so a much bigger pool of talent.
The League used to consist of high schools in Santa Cruz County, but due to realignment, Salinas is in.
The other loss was to Los Gatos, which has twice the enrollment of Soquel. This was the first game of the season when teams schedule tougher competition to prepare for the post-season.
Defense — stopping the opponent — has been the key to Soquel’s success, thanks to three seniors, Cade Petersen, a transfer from San Lorenzo Valley, Malakai Ross-Graves, a transfer from Santa Cruz, and Justice Grauel Tebong, who leads the team in tackles, and junior Gabe Virgalito, who leads in interceptions.
Players on offense made highlight reels in the state championship.
Senior running back Cruz Ferris pushed his way through a lot of bodies to score.
Senior receiver Jordan McCord, who runs track, outpaced caught a pass from sophomore quarterback Sam Whelan, keeping a foot inbounds to score. Then he caught a pass and outran two defenders to score again.
Senior Braylon Noble caught a touchdown pass and had two interceptions.
McCord has scholarship offers from San Jose State and Eastern Washington and Coach Lowery thinks Ross-Graves, Grauel Tebong and Petersen should be recruited, too.
Congratulations to the football team and everyone involved!
TOP PHOTO: Senior Tito Ramirez (center) revs up the Soquel Knights on Senior Night vs. Palma. • Photo Credit: Sam Crane