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Monday, September 27, 2021 SECTION B Paul Farmer . Sports Editor . 427.6926

Vanden falls to Rancho Cotate in OT, 38-31

PeTer Fournier

SPECIAL TO THE DAILY REPUBLIC

ROHNERT PARK — The tough ones always sting the most but give a competitor the best idea of the potential of their team. For Vanden High, their 38-31 overtime loss Saturday to Rancho Cotate showed they could compete and come to the cusp of winning against one of Sonoma County’s best football programs, with the benefit of not having to see them again in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

“It’ll build character for us,” Vanden coach Sean Murphy said. “It’s a great high school football game. Our guys showed a lot of effort. We have to work on eliminating some of our penalties, some of the silly things that we did. A game like this comes down to us coaches fixing the little things we had made mistakes on.”

The key moment was perhaps a botched handoff between quarterback Tre Dimes and Jordan Jones, which gave the Cougars the ball at the Vanden 25 and led to their go-ahead score in the fourth, forcing the Vikings to drive in the closing minutes and get a 36-yard field goal from Diego Nunez-Smith to send it to overtime.

In the only OT period, Cougars wide receiver Sai Vadrawale scored on an eight-yard touchdown run from the wildcat formation to give the Cougars the lead. On Vanden’s drive, a Tre Dimes pass was batted and intercepted by Cougars defensive lineman Malik Cleveland to end the game.

The Vikings (4-1) led for most of the contest. After Rancho (3-1) took an early lead in the first quarter, Vanden came back after a three-and-out on its very first drive of the game and went 80 yards in six plays, capped by a Dimes 28-yard touchdown pass to Michael Belk to tie the contest at 7-7.

Then the Vanden defense hit, forcing Rancho to go 3-andout on its ensuing drive. That led to an 11-play, 92-yard drive in just under 3 minutes, capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by Dimes to take a 14-7 lead.

The Vikings defense would hit again. On the second play of the Cougars’ ensuing drive, Aiden Stragalinos intercepted a Liam Keaney pass at the 22-yard line and took into the end zone, giving the Vikings a two-touchdown lead after one quarter.

Rancho was able to fight back and tie the game in the closing minutes of the first half, setting up a Vanden kickoff return for Jamai East, who muffed it initially, then picked it up and dashed 90 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown, swinging the halftime momentum back to the Vikings, who went into the locker room with a 28-21 lead.

The Cougars defense held for most of the second

See Vanden, Page B8

RYDER CUP

Richard Heathcote/Getty Images/TNS

Collin Morikawa of team United States celebrates on the 17th green after winning the hole to go 1-up and guarantee the half point needed for the United States to win during Sunday Singles Matches of the 43rd Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, Sunday, in Kohler, Wisconsin. The United States prevailed, 19-9.

U.S. overcomes its downtrodden reputation with dominant win

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — On the shores of Lake Michigan, the tide turned.

Team USA, downtrodden for years, made good on a dominating start in the Ryder Cup by closing out Europe in commanding style at Whistling Straits.

Needing a half-point to push the Americans over the top, Collin Morikawa nearly aced the 222yard, par-three 17th hole and secured the victory for his team by draining the three-foot putt that remained.

The 24-year-old from La Canada Flintridge went one up with one hole to play, guaranteeing his team the half-point it needed to get to the magic number of 14½ points. He pumped his fist and held his arms aloft as he calmly walked off the 17th green.

On a day when the home team needed only 3½ points to clinch the cup, rookie Scottie Scheffler set the tone by downing Jon Rahm, the world’s No. 1 player, who hadn’t lost all week.

Scheffler birdied the first four holes to go 4-up, then led by either three or four the rest of the match on his way to a 4-and-3 victory.

Fellow American rookie Patrick Cantlay beat Shane Lowry 4 and 2.

“This is definitely different,” said Cantlay, a former UCLA standout from Long Beach. “I mean, I woke up this morning and I was trying to tell the guys – this is going to be the next era of the Ryder Cup team for the U.S. side. We have a lot of young guys and I think they are going to be on teams for a long time.”

Despite having competitors who were much lower in the average world rankings, Europe had won four of the last five meetings.

But this time, behind a wave of rising American stars, the U.S. proved unstoppable. After the first two days, the Americans enjoyed an 11-5 advantage – and no team had ever overcome a deficit that large.

Although there was a lot of hand-wringing from the Americans about how the long-hitting, puff-chested Bryson DeChambeau would fit in, that polarizing star proved a key component to the victory. He and Scheffler combined to win their four-ball match Saturday, and on Sunday, DeChambeau beat Sergio Garcia to move the U.S. to within a half-point of victory.

“Even though we’re all competitors this week,” DeChambeau said, “we can all be friends and have amazing unity.”

Whereas Rahm lost for the first time all week, teammate Rory McIlroy posted his first victory, ending a five-match losing streak dating to Paris in 2018. The fourtime major champion from Northern Ireland beat San Diego’s Xander Schauffele 3 and 2.

McIlroy, playing in his sixth Ryder Cup, was emotional in a Golf Channel interview after his match, struggling to hold back tears.

Giants finish off another sweep in Coors Field

Magic number down to 5 in NL West

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

DENVER — A Giants team that’s held the best record in the majors for most of the season entered Sunday’s series finale in Colorado riding a Rocky Mountain high following back-to-back wins and more offensive fireworks from the team’s best hitter, Brandon Belt.

The Giants continued their winning ways with a ninth-inning rally that featured a go-ahead pinch-hit single from Tommy La Stella and a three-run home run from Brandon Crawford, yet even after emerging with a 6-2 victory over the Rockies to complete their second straight sweep at Coors Field on Sunday, San Francisco has reason to be concerned.

The excitement the Giants offered their fans during a four-run ninth-inning temporarily overshadowed the anxiety the club felt when Belt exited the game after being hit by a pitch in the top of the seventh. Manager Gabe Kapler is expected to provide an update on Belt’s status following Sunday’s game, but for the moment, the Giants could at least take comfort in knowing they dropped their magic number to win the National League West to five with six games left to play.

With a runner on first and one out in the seventh, Belt squared to bunt against Rockies reliever Lucas Gilbreath and attempted to pull his bat back when the lefty fired a fastball off the inside corner of the plate. The 93-mile per hour four-seamer appeared to strike Belt in the left thumb, leaving the Giants first baseman in significant pain.

Kapler and trainer Dave Groeschner immediately went out to check on Belt, who initially stayed in the game to run the bases before departing for X-rays after the Giants were retired in the seventh.

Belt’s replacement, Wilmer Flores, aided the Rockies’ seventh-inning rally by committing a fielding error on a routine chopper with one out that allowed Colorado to advance the tying run into scoring position. After reliever Zack Littell was called for a balk, second baseman Donovan Solano was unable to complete a 4-2 putout as he fielded a 103.5-mile per hour grounder hit by Elías Díaz on a slide before spinning and firing wide of catcher Curt Casali.

Casali corralled Solano’s throw on the right side of home plate and dove back to the left side to tag C.J. Cron, but a replay review showed that Casali was unable

See Giants, Page B8

Mark Canha the walk-off hero in A’s sweep of Astros

Tribune ConTenT AgenCy

OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s gave the final home crowd at the Coliseum a walk-off to remember. Mark Canha’s drive to center-left field with the bases loaded, one out in the bottom of the ninth sent the A’s to a 4-3 win and sweep of the Houston Astros at home Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 12,228.

Sean Murphy led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a single off Ryan Stanek, then Vimael Machin’s sacrifice bunt wound up a bunt single with a mad, unsuccessful scramble for the ball by the Astros. A passed ball advanced both runners into scoring position with no outs. Starling Marte’s fly ball didn’t go deep enough for Murphy to score, and Matt Olson was intentionally walked to load the bases.

With Lou Trivino back in the ninth inning, the Astros had the go-ahead run in Jose Siri at first base with two outs. Alex Bregman popped a single into shallow right field, where right fielder Seth Brown rifled the ball to Kemp, who saw Siri inexplicably trying to score. Kemp threw home to catcher Sean Murphy, who tagged Siri out to preserve the tie. A replay review confirmed the call.

Yes, the A’s couldn’t even reach 20,000 for the final home game of the year against their division rivals now running away with the American League West division crown.

Paul Blackburn, though, was nearly perfect in his start despite not generating many swings and misses. A prolific Astros offense has been quiet against some strong pitching performances this series. Frankie Montas, Sean Manaea and the bullpen held them to five hits collectively through the first two A’s wins. Paul Blackburn kept up the trend, holding the Astros scoreless through 4 2/3 innings. He was a strike shy of five hitless before Jason Castro bounced a sharp ground ball off Matt Olson’s glove, ruled a hit. Two more hits and the Astros had their first run, tying the game 1-1.

Deolis Guerra replaced Blackburn in the sixth and was greeted by Alex Bregman’s solo blast to deep left field, giving the Astros a 2-1 lead. Yuli Gurriel’s RBI double extended that lead 3-1.

The A’s showed fight, though. Tony Kemp drove in Seth Brown, who doubled, for the A’s first run in the second inning. Responsible for got his third to start the seventh inning. After Yan Gomes was hit by a pitch, Vimael Machin advanced both runners into scoring position. Starling Marte scored Kemp with a ground out, then Mark Canha tied the game back up with an infield hit that bounced off third baseman Bregman’s glove.