Charged up: Without Kai Imahara, Brayden Rosa, Elijah Vallejo carry Wilcox past Santa Teresa

SANTA CLARA — As a team, Wilcox’s style is typically to grind out games.

But the Chargers don’t mind if they pop a few big plays every now and then. It just makes them tougher to stop.

Facing eighth-seeded Santa Teresa on Friday night in the Central Coast Section Division II quarterfinals, No. 1 Wilcox went down 3-0 after Casey Carr converted a 25-yard field goal on the Saints’ first drive.

That lead didn’t last long. Elijah Vallejo scored a 58-yard rushing touchdown three plays later, then upped the ante with a 66-yard score on the Chargers’ next offensive play.

Vallejo’s explosive TD combo gave Wilcox control of the game, and the Chargers ground it out from there en route to a 36-3 opening-round win.

“I was excited,” Vallejo said after the game. “I was running down the field, man. I was pumped up. I was ready. I’m ready to play the next opponent too.”

Wilcox (9-2) will have to wait a week to take on fourth-seeded Menlo-Atherton in a rematch of a close contest played just last week. But against Santa Teresa, the Chargers put on a show.

After Carr’s early field goal put Santa Teresa (9-2) up first, it was the Vallejo and Brayden Rosa double feature.

Rosa followed up Vallejo’s breakout with a 46-yard TD run, then added a 4-yard score to put Wilcox up 29-3. Vallejo capped the scoring with a 3-yard run in the third quarter.

In the absence of quarterback Kai Imahara, who injured his shoulder against Menlo-Atherton, Rosa split time at QB, running back and safety. He completed a few passes, made several tackles defensively and unleashed his typical excellence on the ground.

“The seniors, they’re all balling out,” said Vallejo, a sophomore. “All my seniors on offense and defense. Actually, I’ve got to give it to Brayden Rosa. Brayden Rosa really brings us together too. He’s the real leader of all of this. We’ve all got to contribute to the team and do our job too, though.”

Rosa’s senior year has seen him fill several roles for Wilcox. Those responsibilities are growing by the week with Imahara questionable for the foreseeable future.

“It’s week to week, but we knew for sure not this week,” Chargers coach Paul Rosa, Brayden’s father, said of Imahara’s injury. “We’re not sure about next week. He’s going to see a doctor again on Monday, so we don’t know for sure.

“It’s difficult when you put in 15, 20 weeks with a guy, and then the other guy is now getting all the reps. He’s not used to getting all the reps. Whoever it is, it changes the flow of your offense. We need another week of practice for sure. That’ll help.”

Senior backup Adrian Garcia rotated in with Rosa at quarterback, completing a key 28-yard pass to Rosa on a third-and-13 in the third quarter. For another week at least, it’s likely that the two of them will have to shoulder the load under center.

The loss ended a stellar season for Santa Teresa, which concluded the football careers of Carr, starting quarterback Brenton Gaches and the rest of the Saints’ senior class.

Santa Teresa’s seniors, the first to work with coach Steve Papin for all four seasons, leave a legacy as some of the first Saints players to win a CCS championship.

They were also responsible for elevating Santa Teresa into the Division II playoffs, a lofty perch for the school that won the Division IV title in 2022.

“The boys came to play,” Papin said. “When they hit us for the second long run early, it took our sails out a little bit. We started to self-doubt, as coaches a little bit as well. The boys fought. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Papin wouldn’t necessarily have minded being slotted into the Division III bracket, where the Saints would have been one of the favorites. But he embraced the opportunity that a spot in the D-II tournament provided for his players.

“We told them everybody kept saying, ‘Shock the world.’ And our motto was, ‘We’re not going to shock the world,’ because we thought we should be here. We should play with them.

“You hear, ‘Oh, you should be in D-III.’ But we weren’t. We were in D-II, and that’s a testament to our team and our players for being up with the big boys. We told them all week, ‘Play your game, and you’re not going to shock anybody. We’re going to play our game and make Wilcox take it from us.’”