Crushers take down storied Bellarmine College Prep behind Webber’s big game and strong defensive showing
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
On hall of fame night the Vintage football team beat the storied program Bellarmine-San Jose by a score 26-14, which is is a big win according to coach Dylan Leach.
“It feels great,” an enthusiastic Leach said afterwards. “I mean we’ve been waiting for this one for all year, and I think we’re starting to hit a little bit of a stride. We obviously had a tough start. I think we fixed ourselves and we came out literally the last twelve quarters and played pretty good football.”
Michael Webber, a senior wide receiver and defensive back, also knew the importance of the win afterwards.
“You know it’s a great feeling,” he said of the win. “The coaches have been preaching all week ‘this is the game we need to win’, and we went out there and we did our job.”
There was only two first half touchdown both of which were by the Crushers (2-2). They jumped out to an early lead with 1:52 left in the first quarter when Jacob Aaron connected with Webber for a 26-yard touchdown. Later, the final score of the first half came with 6:58 left until the break when Viliami Schaumkel scored on a five-yard touchdown rush. Vintage attempted a two-point conversion try on their first two scores, but they both failed, which meant they took a 12-0 lead into the break.
The Bells (1-2) had their first and most entertaining score of the game come with 8:39 left in the third when Aizon Henry found the end zone on an impressive 80-yard touchdown scamper. The games final score came when Harry Mingrone connected with Ben Richards for a seven-yard touchdown pass.
Webber had a great night on both sides of the ball for the Crushers. Defensively he had an interception with a 80-yard return, which was what ultimately sealed the game.
“You know the defense was in the right spot, and we played how we were supposed to and I was just there for the pick and was able to get a couple yards out of it,” Webber said of his crucial interception.
On offense he rushed for 25 yards on four carries to go along with his four receptions for 60 yards.
“Mike was Mike, but we knew that,” Leach added on the senior. “We knew that he could have a great game, so we game planned around him to make sure that he’s in positions to make plays, so that’s nothing new for Michael Webber he’s been doing that for four years here at Vintage High School.”
Another person who was crucial in the win for Vintage was senior running back/defensive back Drew Hatfield. He had 74 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown. Schaumkel also rushed for 74 yards on seven carries.
League play begins next week in the West Catholic Athletic League as Bellarmine will host Archbishop Riordan at San Jose City College. Meanwhile for Vintage they will have their bye week next week before opening Vine Valley Athletic League play against Casa Grande-Petaluma on September 21st.
During the bye week Vintage will look to get healthy.
“Ugh get healthy,” Leach said of what the Crushers will look to gain during their bye. “We’re banged up. We knew going in that we would have four tough teams to play and that’s exactly how we want it, but it took its toll and we’re a little beat up, so I think that getting some rest and getting back to just having another normal team the following week will be very good for us.”
“We’re looking to gain a little rest,” Webber explained of the bye weeks importance. “We need to ice up; we need to get healthy and we need to just prepare for the next game.”
Vintage JV 36 Bellarmine 0
The Crushers JV team improved to an impressive 4-0 on the season following their rout of the Bells.
Following the bye week they’ll host Casa Grande at 4:45 p.m. on September 21st.
