Vintage gets back to basics, a score on special teams early to get first league win over Justin-Siena
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
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In sports, it is amazing how one play can change everything. The same can be said about the time preparing for the contest.
On Friday night at Dodd Stadium, Vintage used both of these to beat Justin-Siena, 42-14, and move to 1-1 in Vine Valley Athletic League play.
The game’s momentum seemed to turn on an early 4th down where Justin-Siena had to punt from deep in their own territory. After a bad snap, Parker Schuman lost the ball in the end zone only for Boston Brandt to fall on it and give Vintage a fast 7-0 lead with 10:38 left in the first quarter.
This made it so that the Crushers could play their ground-and-pound game, where they controlled the football.
“It’s always good to get that first touchdown, but more importantly than the touchdown, it was a three and out,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach said of the first score of the game and how it changed things. “Whenever a team elects to take the ball, and we have an offensive that scored 32 (points) last week right? To get to three-and-out and get us in a position put our offense on the field. Obviously, we didn’t know the turnover was gonna happen. But that’s a big thing for us.”
But maybe the biggest thing that helped the Crushers get back on track was the fact that they were refocused during the week.
“The last two weeks, we just haven’t had great practices,” Leach emphasized. “And I think this week, we had great practices again, and I think as you know, in this game, it’s going to come down to how you practice that you’re going to play how you practice and I thought we played hard.”
It also helped that sophomore quarterback Blake Porter has shown each week that he’s gaining more confidence in the system as well. In the game, he didn’t have to do all that much because the other offensive weapons got involved but he showed what he could do when it got to a key down. After all, when the sophomore ran the ball he finished the run and proved to everyone he could do both as he ran 5 times for 45 yards while completing 3 of 6 passing attempts for 30 yards.
“Blake’s a great kid,” Leach said of Porter. “He comes in, he studies. We go over the plays. He knows what he’s doing. He makes sophomore mistakes, but that’s what happens when you’re a sophomore. But I think the the investment that we’re putting in him, and that he’s putting in the program will pay off greatly in the future, and we’re excited about where he’s at. When he finishes runs like that it gets everyone excited, right? I can’t say enough about the kid. He’s calm, he’s collected. He puts time and he puts his work in and it’s it’s only gonna get better for him.”
Another thing that helped Vintage (2-4 overall, 1-1 VVAL) win was the fact that they used their potent running attack to score every offensive touchdown. Both of their leading running backs found the end zone two times in the game. Jefferey Page toted the ball 14 times for 106 yards while Cullinane had 127 yards on 11 carries. Page found the end zone on a pair of runs from 4 yards out. As for Cullinane, he showed his speed with a 34-yard scamper and then a 5-yard rush.
The only other score for Vintage came when Bailey Huss found the end zone on a 36-yard run with 10:36 left in the game.
Part of the refocusing was taking care of and valuing the football. In the game, Vintage had one lone turnover, which is a massive change from the 4 last week.
“We only had one turnover,” Leach laughed. “So obviously, we don’t want to have but we have a lot better than the four or five we had the week before and I felt like we just controlled the line of scrimmage. I felt like we just got back to doing what we do.”
Justin-Siena (3-2, 1-1 VVAL) found more offensive rhythm in the second half after they had many chances for big plays where the timing was simply off in the first half. One reason for this was the fact that he had plenty of time to throw all night long.
“I thought the score wasn’t quite indicative of what the game was,” Justin-Siena head coach Tyler Streblow said. “ The guys up front did a really good job. We got caught a couple times trying to help out. They were running this kind of delayed blitz with their middle linebacker, we talked about it. As soon as we saw it early, and a couple of times they got us on it. But other than that, I think we did a really good job up front.”
After all, Drew Sangiacomo had another efficient night leading the passing attack as he completed 14 of 28 passes for 183 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
The Braves’ first score of the game came when Sangiacomo found Sam Denkin for a 9-yard scoring connection with 6:28 left in the third.
In their last score, Sangiacomo found Jason Gray along the sideline for a 37-yard connection to make it 42-14.
Throughout the season, Gray has been used as the vertical threat in the offense. In the game, he recorded 7 receptions for 102 yards to lead the receiving corps.
“Jason is kind of the speed guy,” Streblow explained. “He’s a big play guy.”
Not far behind was Schumann who has been used in more of the chain mover role lately. He added 87 yards on 6 catches in the game.
“With Parker, he can really spread the middle of the field,” Streblow said. “So he does a great job sitting in Windows, he does a great job finding the space away from inside linebackers underneath safeties.”
Up next for Vintage will have their bye week before visiting Casa Grande in a massive VVAL matchup on October 13th. Before that, however, Justin-Siena will visit the Gauchos who were 38-0 winners over Napa on Friday next week at 7 pm.
In other VVAL action, American Canyon beat Sonoma Valley 49-14. The league standings can be viewed here.
