Rocklin High School’s football team pulled off a 31-6 victory at home over Del Campo Friday night to improve to 2-2 on the season.

Entering the game, the Thunder and the Cougars were coming off decisive wins the week before after starting the season 0-2.

Both teams had a tough time getting anything started before Rocklin sustained a drive at the 4:08 mark in the first quarter.  Two big runs by running back Evyn Holtz and senior quarterback Logan Webb set up the first score of the game, as Webb scrambled in from 16 yards out for a 7-0 lead.

The Thunder continued their offensive dominance throughout the second half, as they scored another touchdown toward the start of the second quarter. Rocklin kicked a field goal with 45 seconds left in the half for a 17-0 lead at halftime.

Benzel said the play of lineman Spencer Mendenwald was nothing short of perfect in helping keep Del Campo on its collective heels.

 “Our O line got on their blocks and created holes for our running game,” said head coach Greg Benzel about his offense, “which caused us to make some big plays.”

Holtz picked up more than 150 yards on 13 carries by the intermission, en route to 193 rushing yards and one touchdown. Holtz also caught a pass to gain a total of 205 yards on the night.

As the second half began, Rocklin came out sluggish. The Thunder showedsigns of fatigue and Del Campo took advantage of that.

The Cougars began to pick apart the Thunder defense. Del Campo connected on a 50-yard pass followed by a 10-yard run that set up a 3-yard run to cut Rocklin’s lead 17-6.

With momentum on their side, Del Campo forced a three-and-out and started to move down the field.

The Thunder allowed a 21-yard run to midfield before clamping down to force a three-and-out.

 “We were playing our hearts out,” said senior cornerback Ryan Durgarian. “We had some down moments, but we stepped up when we needed to tonight.”

But the big defensive stop looked as if it was for naught; faced with third-and-14, Webb scrambled to his right looking for a receiver. Web threw to Max O’Rourke for 24 yards to keep the drive alive.

Webb continued to take control as he ran for 18 yards and another Thunder first down.  On third down and short yardage, Webb called his own number and rushed for another first down. Holtz scored three plays later to increase the lead to 24-6.

It wasn’t long after that Durgarian intercepted a Cougars’ pass and took it to the end zone. It was his second interception in two weeks and put the game out of reach 31-6 with 10:11 left in the game.

In the final minutes of the game, two big penalties against Rocklin gave Del Campo a chance to score and cut into the massive lead.  But that was before losing a fumble to give the Thunder an opportunity to run out the clock.

“We were out of sync offensively,” said Benzel on his team’s performance. “We made some errors; we were unfocused on our part heading into league.  I thought our defense did great on holding them to six points, only breaking down on that scoring drive, and making some big plays to make it happen tonight.”

Rocklin finished the game with 294 yards on the ground and O’Rourke scored seven points connecting on all four of his extra points and a 23-yard field goal. The Thunder had a total of 373 yards in the game.

ROCKLIN 31, DEL CAMPO 6

Cougars          0          0          0          6 – 6

Thunder         7          10        0          14 – 31

AROUND THE LEAGUE

Roseville (3-1), 17-12 win over Oakmont

Granite Bay (2-1), 46-28 win over Vacaville

Rocklin (2-2), 31-6 win over Del Campo

Del Oro (1-2), 41-3 loss to De La Salle

Woodreek (1-3), 27-24 loss to Antelope

Nevada Union (0-4), 41-14 loss to Chico</p

Source: http://www.placerherald.com/article/rocklin-continues-roll-downing-del-campo-31-6-0