Second half Vintage comeback ultimately comes up short in loss to Acalanes
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The home opener didn’t go quite as planned for the Vintage High football team on Friday night when they lost to Acalanes of Lafayette by a score of 28-27.
The games opening drive was all Vintage (0-2). After taking five minutes and 52 off of the clock and going 80 yards sophomore Jacob Aaron scampered into the end zone on a 20-yard run with 6:08 left in the first quarter. Michael Webber’s two-yard rush pushed the lead to eight points.
Following that score the Dons (1-1) offense came to life. As time expired in the first quarter Nick Kresnak connected with Chris Rogers from five yards out.
Later, in the second quarter with 4:32 left Kresnak hooked up with Jack Muren for a 30-yard touchdown pass to give Acalanes the lead.
With 1:11 to go till half Kresnak and Rogers met up again for another touchdown this time for a 58 yarder as the Dons led at the half 21-8.
In the second half it was like a complete different team had taken the field for the burgundy and gold.
“I thought we competed and fought,” Vintage coach Dylan Leach said of the game. “I thought the first half was absolutely terrible. I mean we went down on the first drive and just chunked them, but they couldn’t stop us on the first drive and that’s what we planned on doing, but then we have some mental mistakes and then some breakdowns and execution breakdowns, but I’m happy with the second half as far as you know showing some fight there and playing hard.”
“You know we had some leaders in the locker room tell us ‘let’s go man’,” Aaron explained of what got the Crushers going in the second half. “You know they’ve been down last year by more than that and hey man we almost got it, but a loss is a loss, we’ll come back next week though.”
“Despite the loss I feel like we all came out (and) fought hard in the second half and we picked it up and we followed the game plan, we followed our coaches with what they’re saying, and we just executed and we just came up short,” Webber said of the contest.
The Crushers defense came to life by stopping the Acalanes air raid all while allowing only one second half touchdown, and the offense came to life as they scored 19 second half points.
Aaron connected with Webber for a 56-yard touchdown pass with a minute left in the half.
With 11:08 left in the game Aaron found the end zone this time on a 29-yard touchdown rush.
The Crushers final score of the game came by way of a Jesus Galvan one-yard run with 1:05 left in the contest. Vintage initially decided to go for the win, but they had 12 men on the field, which cost them five yards before they decided to kick the PAT. Vintage later kicked the PAT and there was what looked to be a roughing the kicker call on Acalanes that was later called back as the officials said the ball was tipped, which ultimately overturned the roughing penalty.
“If the ball was tipped there’s no penalty for running into the kicker,” Leach explained of the game’s final score.
Acalanes had their final score come with 2:31 left in the third when Kresnak threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Keaziah Smith.
Viliami Schaumkel and Aaron led the Vintage rushing attack on the night. Schaumkel rushed 14 times for 70 yards, and Aaron rushed 11 times for 80 yards and two touchdowns.
“I thought Jacob played a pretty decent game,” Leach said of the sophomore quarterback. “We missed the slant and go in the second quarter that would’ve been a touchdown, but for the most part I think he made some good reads; he had some good runs, and he’s got a lot of moxy that kid. More importantly he hates to lose, and that’s what I respect about him; he hates to lose more than he loves to win, so i think moving forward the future looks pretty bright here at Vintage.”
Kresnak had a great night passing the ball on the night. He completed 20 of his 33 passes for 290 yards. The junior also threw four touchdown passes and one interception.
Both teams will be in action again next Friday night. Vintage will travel to Stockton to face Lincoln while Acalanes will make the trek to Cordelia to face Rodriguez.
Vintage JV 27 Acalanes 18
The Vintage JV improved to 2-0 on the young season Friday night.
Nick Schuttish had two interceptions and Reid McCaffrey had one to lead the defensive attack on the night.
After Acalanes had scored first in the game Bill Chaidez scored the Crushers first touchdown of the game on a rush. With 4:06 till the half Chaidez found Sam Neal for a five-yard touchdown pass. With 30 seconds left till half Chaidez found the end zone again on another rush. Chaidez had his final score of the night come with 5 minutes left in the game to give Vintage a 27-18 advantage.
The Crushers will be back in action next Friday night when they visit Lincoln.
