Vintage breaks out trick plays, routes Sonoma Valley
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Even in blowouts, there is always room to improve.
That was the case for the Vintage football team despite the fact they still slain the Dragons from Sonoma Valley (0-4, 0-4 VVAL) by a score of 59-14.
For the Crushers (4-0 overall, 4-0 Vine Valley Athletic League), giving up a season-high 14 points wasn’t what they wanted. Part of the problem was that Vintage had an uncharacteristic amount of laundry on the field that went against them.
“I think it was on penalties,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach explained. “The first drive was I don’t know how many yards, but it was definitely for penalties that drove them down the field on that. It’s something we’ve got to work on.”
Vintage started the game in a fascinating way on offense. The water pick, which is generally used on two-point conversions was how they scored the first touchdown of the game – a Dylan Smith 50-yard touchdown run with a successful two-point try on the same play.
“It gives them a weird look,” Vintage senior quarterback Bill Chaidez said. “We practice it so well – like it’s nothing new for us. We can run it at any point at any part of the field, so we just happened to come out in it and it works pretty well. It was a good play for us.”
“I just felt it’s a good play for us,” Leach said. “Anytime we get the ball to 33 (Smith) with blockers, I think that’s a good play. Obviously, we scored I think, on the first play the game with it. To me, it’s not a gimmick or a trick. It’s one of our plays that we run every day in practice.”
The game also continued an intriguing trend of scoring more than 50 points, but so far Vintage has scored 53, 55, 57, and 59 points in their first four games.
“It’s fun to watch these guys prepare. We prepare very hard and we watch,” Leach added. “We just feel there are certain things that we could take advantage of and we do and that’s why those points come up, and it’s just execution of the gameplan.”
The Crushers will now head into their final two games of the season, which happen to be against local rivals Justin-Siena and Napa High. Next week’s game at Justin-Siena will start at 7 pm.
“This is it,” Leach said of the upcoming games on their schedule. “We play this schedule for the next two weeks and that’s what it comes down to.”
In other VVAL games Friday night that were both in Petaluma, Casa Grande beat American Canyon 49-46. Meanwhile, Petaluma beat Napa 14-13.
Justin-Siena had the league bye on Friday night but will face St. Vincent de Paul Saturday at 2 pm.
