Vintage rolls past Petaluma to tally first league win
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
They’re back. We all knew it was just a matter of time until we saw the Vintage football team that everyone is accustomed to seeing on a weekly basis. On Friday night that was the case as they routed Petaluma 55-14 to get their first league win.
It was an all-around win as well for the hosts.
“It felt great to finally see us all come together and work as a unit,” Vintage senior running back Dylan Smith said. “Nothing real big went wrong – a couple of little things that we’ve got to work on of course. But we really worked as a unit today and it showed for sure.”
They played like we all expect on a weekly basis by executing in all three phases of the game.
“I just thought we execute a lot better,” Vintage head coach Dylan leach said afterward. “I think we had a couple (of) minor mistakes penalty-wise, but nothing that like set us back right to where it was 3rd and 25 or something like that. We didn’t put the ball on the ground and obviously, turnovers, field position, our special teams played well for the most part.”
The glaring difference for the Crushers (2-3 overall, 1-1 Vine Valley Athletic League) was the execution on the special teams. In previous weeks, it’s been leaky, but on Friday night they were flying all over the field and making plays.
“This is the thing. We spend a lot of time on that even prior to this night,” Leach said of the fixed-up specials. “Coach (Kyle) Archer does a hell of a job with specials. We just had a lack of communication and execution over the last few weeks. So it’s great to get those guys back in their lanes, tackling, getting downfield and breaking down, and making plays.”
Another reason Vintage was able to get a lopsided victory was the emergence of Smith. He ran for 189 yards on 13 carries while also rushing for a whopping five touchdowns.
“Feels good to be back,” Smith said of his huge night. “I haven’t been able to do that in a while because of my injury, so it’s good to be back.”
“Dylan got banged up, obviously our first week, and we got him back last week,” Leach said of the three-year varsity starter. “We felt like he just hasn’t been himself running-wise. Now that he’s back healthy and running at one hundred percent, we wanted to make sure that he got the bulk of the carries so he can get back in shape.”
Also finding the end zone on the night was Diego Davis. He scored once rushing and once through the air and once on the ground. With 4:24 left in the first quarter, he found paydirt from 19 yards out. Then, Tytan Bradley found him for a 13-yard reception with 7:37 left in the first half.
Bradley also found Brandon Cruz for his second and final touchdown through the air on the night with 11:30 left in the third quarter. It was a seven-yard connection.
The Trojans (5-1, 1-1 VVAL) got on the board on a one-yard run by Henry Ellis with 1:23 left in the first quarter. Their other score of the night saw Ellis find Neill Castro for a 17-yard touchdown connection.
The end of the first half also saw Petaluma kicker Asher Levy, who was a hero last week in their win, miss a 40-yard attempt that would’ve cut the deficit to 24.
Next week Vintage will be home again when they host American Canyon. Meanwhile, Petaluma will have the bye week next.
In other VVAL action Friday night, American Canyon beat Napa 55-33 and Justin-Siena beat Sonoma Valley 35-7.
