Vintage breaks out trick plays in homecoming victory over Casa Grande
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It’s always important to get off to strong in league play.
Also when coming off of a bye week, it’s important to get back in the win column.
The Vintage football team did both in their 39-14 win over Casa Grande in their annual homecoming game.
“Yeah, I think in the division that we’re in, you pretty much got to win league,” Vintage coach Dylan Leach said of the importance of the win. “And so anytime you’re 1-0, we’ll take that.”
Vintage (4-1 overall, 1-0 Vine Valley Athletic League) started game a bit slow by fumbling on their first offensive play of the game.
But after the fumble, the Crushers were able to find the end zone for the first time when Jacob Aaron found Mauricio Castro for a 25-yard touchdown with 6:03 left in the first quarter.
“I think we’re just kind of getting used to everything,” Vintage senior defensive back and homecoming king Harrison Barret said. “I think one it might have been the weather because we haven’t played in this cold weather yet.”
“It is what it is when you don’t play for two weeks,” Leach said of the early struggles. “Obviously, we had discussed in length about avenging our last outing and what we came out and we felt we were flat two weeks ago. So, it is what it is, but we know we picked it up in the second quarter. And we’ll just try to continue that momentum.”
In the second quarter, Vintage started to wake up and find themselves again. It all started when they were able to convert a 25-yard field goal by Tate Salese with 9:38 left till half.
The Crushers broke out the trickery when Aaron handed the ball off to Bill Chaidez who then found Sam Neal for a 57-yard touchdown with 6:38 left in the half. It was also Neal’s first-ever varsity touchdown.
“I knew I was wide open and once I saw the ball in the air I knew I was going to catch it,” Neal said of his first touchdown at the varsity level.
They also got a defensive touchdown when Jayden Benjamin scooped and scored from seven yards out on a fumble by Casa Grande quarterback Miguel Robertson with 2:06 left in the second quarter.
The Crushers went into the break up 32-0 after Aaron found Cutler Low on a flea-flicker for a 30-yard connection with only a minute and four seconds left in the half.
“I just think we just wanted to become part of our offense,” Leach said of all the tricks he brought out on offense during the game. “It’s fun for the kids, it’s fun for the stands. It’s sound football, so I wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work in practice. And I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think that it’s the right thing to do.”
Casa Grande (2-4, 1-1 VVAL) got on the board when Robertson found McHale for a 30-yard touchdown with 8:44 left in the third quarter. They also scored when Robertson found Dominic Giomi on a swing pass for a 25-yard touchdown with 5:41 remaining in the game.
Vintage’s final score of the game came when Castro scampered into the end zone from 25 yards out with 6:27 left in the third. Castro ended the game with 49 yards on four carries.
Next week, Vintage will visit Petaluma on Friday at 7 p.m. As for Casa Grande, they will host Sonoma Valley on October 11th.
