Surviving their first playoff game in over a decade, the Juanita Rebels earned a win last Friday night, beating Shorecrest 48-7. With the win the team moves into the first round of the state tournament, where the Rebels will face No. 2 Camas High School.
“Its been a long time, it’s been a long time coming,” said head coach Shaun Tarantola. “It feels really good to finally get Juanita back to where the school deserves to be.”
Up next for the Rebels are the 10-0 Papermakers of Camas, who knocked off Rainier Beach in last week’s first round of playoffs, winning 56-0.
The Papermakers have been without starting quarterback Logan Grindy after he broke his leg in week nine of the season, but backup Tony Gennaro, in his first start of the season again Rainier Beach, easily led the team to victory.
Last Friday night, Rebels ran past the Scots all night, ending the first quarter with a 14-0 lead after quarterback Derek Kaufman and Jeremiah Laufasa scored in the first 12 minutes on runs to the end zone.
Laufasa added his second of the night just two minutes into the second quarter on a 55-yard run down field for a 21-0 ball game. He got his third of the nice with 3:51 remaining in the half after Ryley Caldwell advanced the ball 20 yards toward the goal line.
The teams broke for the half with a 28-0 Juanita lead, despite long foul calls against them late in the quarter.
Back in action after the break the Rebels resumed their dominance over a tired Shorecrest team, with a Laufasa touchdown with 9:05 remaining in the third. The score was 35-0.
Unable to get going on offense, the Scots returned the ball to Juanita on th3 24-yard line, but it was long until Caldwell made a 72-yard run for a touchdown, making it a 42-0 game.
Shorecrest, following the third quarter, made strides down field, scoring their only points of the night on a run from the 4-yard line with 10:03 left in the game. But Juanita’s Oscar Fuentes scored the final points of the night with 2:58 remaining on a running clock to bring the game of it’s final 48-7 score.
“I felt we played very physical, that was our goal,” said Tarantola. “We felt like we weren’t as physical as we could have been last week we came back and that was our emphasis and it showed tonight.”
He said he was impressed with the offensive line during the game against Shorecrest.
“Our offensive line, we were able to open up some big holes for our running backs and we felt very good about our running game, we felt like we got some good push all night. Our d-line, they are doing the same thing on the defensive side of the ball,” said the coach.
This weekend the team will travel to southern Washington for their game against Camas.
“We’re going to prepare for that like we always do,” said Tarantola of the long bus trip to the game. “A little bit longer bus ride, but I think we’ll be fine as far as that goes. Once we get out on the field its Saturday night football, same size field as over here so it’ll be a lot of fun. We’ll watch film, it’s hard to tell sometimes during a game when things are going well. I think we’re going to keep emphasizing the same things like faking and being physical and tackling.”
The Rebels will travel to Camas on Saturday, Nov. 13 for a 6 p.m. playoff game against the Papermakers. The game will take place at Doc Harris Stadium in Camas.
