ROHNERT PARK, Calif. – Zachary Homan has been the linchpin of the Cardinal Newman offense all season, and on Friday night on the road at Rancho Cotate he made his biggest statement of all.

With the Cardinals trailing 13-7 at halftime, the 6-0, 200-pound senior running back rushed for 200 yards and three second half TDs to finish with 300 yards and four TDs on 31 carries to lead Cardinal Newman (8-0, 3-0 North Bay League – Oak Division) to a 28-13 victory.

In a bit of an amazing stat, Homan had 300 of the Cardinals 316 yards of total offense.

"It was my line, I just ran behind them" said Homan humbly. "It wasn't me, it was my line."

Homan may have wanted to credit his line but the reality is the Newman offensive line was being handled in the first half by Rancho Cotate. Not only that but after a 7-7 tie after one quarter, and with Newman trailing 10-7 in the early second quarter, Homan fumble away the football in the red zone.

From there the hosts capitalized on the turnover with a massive 19-play drive but it only resulted in a second field goal by senior kicker Cesar Arango Elorza. The field goal gave the Cougars a six-point lead with 5 seconds left in the half, however, to the dismay of the Rancho Cotate faithful it would also be their team's final tally of the contest.

"We had a game plan for it but our defense isn't really built for what they do," Newman head coach Richard Sanchez. "In the first half it came down to just missing too many tackles."

"In the second half it just came down to tackling," Sanchez continued. "It seemed like we were too scared No. 4 would get loose on us so our eyes were dirty a lot, but we cleaned it all up in the second half."

The players Sanchez was referring to would be Rancho Cotate track star and running quarterback Jacob Pruitt. The 5-10, 170-pound senior came into the game nursing an ankle that caused him to miss two games but he was averaging 147 yards and nearly three TDs a game rushing.

The Cardinal Newman defense only allowed Pruitt 19 yards rushing on seven carries in the first half, and he only had 22 yards passing. Pruitt did end up with 48 yards passing but he did not run in the second half other than when Newman sacked him for the third time in the game, and with the sack he finished with 17 yards rushing.

Newman's attention to Pruitt opened things up for others. Junior Gio Martinez scored the Cougars only touchdown on a 2-yard run that opened the scoring. At that point after driving the ball down field for 71 yards in nine plays to score, the way Rancho Cotate was controlling the line of scrimmage it looked like an upset was brewing.

The Cardinals kept Geovanny Ortiz out of the end zone, but the senior running back had 91 yards on 15 carries in the first half to carry the load. The Newman defense limited him to 33 yards on eight carries in the second half, and he finished with 124 yards total after he had rushed for 299 yards three weeks ago against Analy-Sebastopol.

The momentum Rancho Cotate created on its opening drive continued when the Cougars defense forced three incomplete passes by Newman sophomore quarterback Jayson Colter and got the ball back after a punt. This time the Cardinals defense forced a three and out, and that's when Sanchez decided to put the ball in the hands of Homan.

Sanchez, who has gone to platooning quarterbacks in recent games, brought in Wyatt Knechtle, and he led Newman on a seven-play, 69-yard scoring drive, but he never threw a pass. In fact, he handed off all seven times to Homan who blasted in from 5-yards out to equalize things at 7-7.

The two field goals by Arango Elorza closed out the first half but from there it was all Cardinal Newman, or should we say all Homan.

With the Cardinals deferring the opening kickoff they got the ball to begin the third quarter with Knechtle under center. He did throw two passes, including a 6-yard completion the Jonah Bertoli, but the rest was all Homan. Seven of the nine plays in a scoring drive came via rushes by Homan and accounted for 52 of the 58 yards, culminating in a 15-yard TD run that him break four tackles before hitting pay dirt to give Newman a 14-13 lead it never relinquished.

From that point on Rancho Cotate could only muster one first down and they were held to 66 yards of total offense.

Meanwhile, Homan made it 21-13 on a 2-yard TD run that came on a 4-play drive 32-yard drive in which he ran the ball every play.

The final score came late and it looked like Homan was stopped but once again he dragged tackles and broke free from four tacklers once again before outrunning everyone for a 50-yard touchdown.   

"We stayed with them for the first half and change but the common theme is we pretty much fall apart in the second half of games," said Rancho Cotate head coach Gehrig Hotaling. "The only logical explanation is we've got to many two-way guys and we're getting tired."

"All of our losses have been the same story. We've played every team we've lost to tough in the first half," Hotaling continued. "The expectation is can we finish a game. We've got to figure it out somehow and will look at all possibilities."

Of note the 300 yards rushing is believed to be a Cardinal Newman single game record, and now after only eight games, Homan, who has 1,524 yards so far this season, is closing in on the single season record of 1,863 yards set in 2006 by Brian Hutton.

Homan still has four former Cardinals and five of their marks to pass, but with Cardinal Newman a lock to make the playoffs he will have at least three games remaining to try and do it starting this Friday night at cross-town Santa Rosa and then at home versus Windsor in the North Bay League – Oak Division finale.

Rancho Cotate (4-4, 1-2) will need to regroup and prepare for a playoff run. The Cougars will be favored in their last two regular season game, and if they win them both beginning with Montgomery on the road in Santa Rosa up next on Friday, and then Santa Rosa on the road in two weeks, they are locked into the playoffs. If they only win one and finish 5-5 and 2-3 in league they're still eligible with a .500 overall record, but not guaranteed a spot.