By HEATHER O'BRIEN

Bulletin Correspondent

ORANGEVALE — With No. 2 Casa Roble boasting offensive and defensive lines ranging from 260 to 353 pounds, seventh-seeded Lathrop found its hands full Friday night and lost 46-18 to the host Rams in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V quarterfinals. 

Casa Roble (10-1) rode the hot hand of Connor Campbell (7-of-12 passing, 190 yards) to three first-half passing touchdowns and a 27-3 halftime lead. The Spartans (8-4) countered somewhat in the second half, but it just was not enough.

“We hadn’t seen a team like that all year,” Lathrop coach Ryan Teicheira said. “Their size is obvious.

“In the second half, I loved the way our boys fought back when we came out unleashed and stepped up their physicality.”

The Spartans were working on a 13-play drive in the third period when they got in the Rams red zone, and the physical and extra-curricular tempo picked up for both teams. Unfortunately for Lathrop, the Spartans were whistled for dead-ball personal fouls on three plays out of four and were unable to score.

“We tried to tell them to play with a cool head,” Teicheira said. “But the emotions were high, especially coming out of halftime. The game was allowed to get out of control and we pushed the limits and we got called for it at a bad time.”

Casa Roble coach Chris Horner knows how special it is to have lines that tip the scales well in excess of 1,000 pounds and move light on their feet.

“We’ve got some big boys,” Horner said. “They eat a lot, they work out and they do their job in the weight room. And we have a lot of those guys go both ways.

“We have some skill guys, but we tell the skill guys we don’t care how great they are, if we don’t have a line to block it could be problematic. Apparently, we grow them big out here in Orangevale.”

Late in the third period facing fourth down and 17 yards to go for a first from near midfield, Teicheira ran a counter to Jimari Dove Jr. (11 carries, 91 yards) who raced 50 yards to the 1-yard line. Two plays later he scored on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut the Rams lead to 33-10.

“As soon as I got the ball on that long run, I saw an arm on me,” Dove Jr. said. “I broke the tackle and unfortunately I didn’t score on that play, but the line did its job and I got in a few plays later.”

Lathrop’s Julio Garcia (19 carries, 100 yards) scored on a 2-yard plunge with 6:03 left in the game to make the score 40-18.

“We were the underdogs,” Garcia said. “In the second half we came back and showed them just how physical we could be.

“I think if we would have played like that in the first half it would have been a closer game.”

Oscar Ruvalcaba got the Spartans on the board late in the second period on a 21-yard field goal.