Vintage edges out Antioch in hard-fought battle to get first win of season
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
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One could say that a win is a win and it doesn’t matter how you get it. But my goodness why do some games need to be more complicated than they need to be?
This is just how sports is and sometimes and that’s what makes it great. So it should come as no surprise that the Vintage football team won a thriller over Antioch on Friday night at Memorial Stadium, 30-26, to rack up their first win of the year.
This also marks the third time these two teams have played in a thriller against Antioch. In all three of those games, Vintage has come out victorious.
“They’re tough kids and they’re fast and athletic,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach said of the challenge that the Panthers pose. “I think coach (Brett) Dudley and that staff do a great job. They’re well-coached and it shows on the field.”
When they met last season, Vintage was victorious in a 28-22 overtime game. Before that, the two met in the quarterfinals of the CIF North Coast Section playoffs in 2018 when the Crushers won 24-21 in two overtimes.
On another hand, there have to be reasons as to why they were able to win. One of the main reasons was Si Sabbagha running the offense in a very efficient fashion.
“I think he’s just growing,” Leach said of Sabbagha. “He’s becoming more mature. He’s understanding the offense a little bit more. Hey, no one’s going to be mistake-free but he’s getting better and better with his mistakes and he played big boy football.”
The senior accounted for a pair of scores from 14 and 4 yards out. In the game, he rushed 14 times for 114 games as well.
“The line was the difference,” Sabbagha explained. “I simply run behind them and they’re big.”
On top of this, he was very efficient in the passing game completing 5 of 6 passes for 66 yards. The most important of those came on a long 2nd down and 25 where he rolled to the right and found Treven Cullinane for a gain of 18 yards. This play also shifted the game’s momentum.
“Honestly the growth comes from coaches and I’ve really good supportive teammates, and they just helped me and get me better all every day,” Sabbagha said of becoming a duel threat signal caller. “They’re on me every day and I can’t ask for a better supporting cast around me.”
Vintage (1-1) wouldn’t have been able to win the game if it weren’t for their running backs having nice games.
Jeffery Page added 64 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Treven Cullilane also carried the ball 8 times for 42 yards.
Joseph Ellis added 6 carries for 36 yards. He had a key 14-yard rush to bring the Crushers out from the shadow of their own goal line.
Carson McCaffrey also added a 4-yard score with 7:59 left in the third. Henry Drozdowicz also nailed a 25-yard field goal with 5:46 left in the first half.
Antioch (1-1) was able to keep the game within reach thanks to a lethal passing game led by quarterback Lorenzo Mayfield who found Kha’mahri Jones for a pair of touchdown passes from 43 and 25 yards out. He also found Angel Buenzo for a 24-yard connection in the contest.
The Panthers’ only other score came on a 78-yard rush by Curtis Tucker. This cut the Crusher lead to four.
In the second half, the number of big plays was dropped due to Vintage coming out with a Cover-2 approach to keep everything in front of them.
“We just started playing cover two the way we were supposed to,” Leach said. “We didn’t do what we were supposed to do last week and it hurt us.”
It’s also big for the Crushers to get a win as their schedule only gets tougher in the coming weeks.
“It’s a big win, and I can’t say enough about the defensive staff and the defensive players,” Leach said of the first win of the year. “They bought into what we were doing. I felt like last week we we kind of gave away some things we didn’t need to. And I felt like defensively, even with the yards, they gave up in the 26 points. That was not on the defense. That was much more on our turnovers and how we shot ourselves in the foot. So I can’t say enough about Coach Archer and the defensive staff and those kids for buying into it and really playing Crusher football.”
This game also had a bit of both teams shooting themselves in the foot. At key times when the momentum could’ve changed swiftly, a key penalty would ruin a drive for both teams. The game was almost lost by Vintage due to a personal foul as well. However, the Panthers then weren’t able to score as time ran out.
As it always is for Vintage, the schedule will continue to be tough. Next week, it will be a trip to Santa Rosa to face Cardinal Newman at 7 p.m. This will be the last non-league matchup before the two before they transition to a super league next fall.
