Dragons drop third straight with 28-27 loss to Pumas

With about two minutes left in Friday night’s varsity football game between Sonoma and Maria Carillo, the Dragons had just scored a touchdown to pull within one point of the Pumas.
Staring an 0-3 start right in the face, head coach Mick O’Meara pulled off his extra point unit and sent his offense back out onto the field, looking to take advantage of the momentum they had piled up, but the toss to running back Nick Fedrick on the two-point conversion was unsuccessful. The Pumas then took over after a missed onside kick and ran down the clock to hold on to a 28- 27 victory over the Dragons.
Sonoma (0-3) put themselves in a hole early, as the Pumas offense scored 21 points in the first 18 minutes. The Pumas (2-1) ended up running for over 300 yards on the ground alone in the contest, led by fullback Zack Sheets, who had another 100-plus yard rushing effort and scored the second touchdown for the Pumas on a counter dive from 16 yards out.
Sonoma came back with 5:25 to go in the 2nd quarter down 21-0 and marched down the field on a 67 yard drive that finished with a great run by senior tailback Nick Fedrick from five yards out to cut it to 21-7.
After the Dragons forced a three-and-out, they came back on a short field again, as a 33 yard catch by senior wide receiver Steve Filippi set up a scramble from senior quarterback Jake Powers from 10 yards out to cut the lead in half, 21-14 with under a minute to play in the 2nd quarter.
On the very next play from scrimmage, senior defensive end Ethan Cohen beat his man off the edge and sacked Puma junior quarterback Luther Odom. The ball was jarred loose and the Dragons had the ball back on the fumble recovery by senior linebacker Bradley Ramirez with under 30 seconds to play in the half and the ball inside the Pumas 15-yard-line.
However, the Dragons were unable to punch it in and had to settle for a missed field goal by senior kicker Sam Wallace from 28 yards out to end the half down seven points.
The teams then traded touchdowns to start the 2nd half; the Pumas with another big run from Sheets from 31 yards out and the Dragons getting another touchdown run from Fedrick, who had over 100 yards for the first time in his career and three touchdowns.
The Dragons defense became stout and allowed gave their offense the chance to score to tie or win the game, but a tackle from Sam Atoe on the aforementioned two-point conversion ended the Dragons scoring chances.
The Dragons are 0-3 to start a season for the first time since 2006, when they unveiled a spread offense against Healdsburg in their Sonoma County League opener tospring a 34-21 upset and set up a 5-2 finishing run to sneak into the North Coast Section playoffs.
Sonoma will host Windsor next Friday at Arnold Field for their Homecoming game, which is also their SCL opener. The game will start at 7:30 p.m. Windsor (1-3) is coming off a 29-14 loss to Castlemont on Friday night. Sonoma hasn’t defeated the Jaguars since 2004.