Cullinane’s monster performance helps Vintage extend winning streak to seven in Big Game LII statement win over Napa
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
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Sometimes you need to make a statement to show what type of team you can be. This is even more so when the season has ups and downs.
In Friday night’s Big Game LII (52), both teams entered looking for a way to make a statement. When the game ended at Memorial Stadium, Vintage kept the KVON Victory Bell and Kiwanis of Napa trophy as they beat their rivals of Napa High, 54-19.
This is also the seventh consecutive Big Game victory for the Crushers, which ties a record when they won from 1974-80.
“I just can’t say enough about this game,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach said of extending the winning streak to seven games in the series. “I just love coaching in it. I loved playing in it. I loved being here when I was a kid. It means everything for us in the community. So really excited for our guys. I mean, the win’s great and all. When I’m done and retired, I’ll go ahead and worry about how many I got. But right now, I’m just excited for these kids.”
Big Game also gave the Crushers consecutive wins for the first time this season.
“I mean, it’s a lot. We’ve been working on all season,” Vintage senior running back Treven Cullinane explained of the importance of the win. “This is like the most important game for us. So we’ve had a lot of adversity this season. It definitely means a lot and we’ve really been working hard.”
In this game, it also helped that Vintage had Cullinane on their side. The senior running back finished the game with 187 yards on just 7 carries with 4 touchdowns in the game.
His first score of the game came on a long 74-yard run on a 3rd down and 12 to give Vintage (4-5 overall, 3-2 VVAL) the lead and change the momentum of the game.
“That was really just my lineman,” Cullinane said of his first score in the game. “I was just looking for their blocks and cutting off them. That was really just all them.”
That 74-yard run also proved to be a backbreaker for Napa who struggled to get off the field on 3rd down all season, and this was no different.
“I felt like our Achilles heel was getting off the field on third down all year,” Napa lead assistant and offensive coordinator Chris Yepson explained. “Whether it was Petaluma last week or this week, we put them into third and 17 on the opening drive. I couldn’t ask for a better position and then they just run basic quarterback sweep left and we can’t fill a gap, and just some base football stuff that we have to get better at. And we’re never gonna be a well-coached team like Vintage unless we could do the fundamental things, which is be gap sound defensively.”
Cullinane also added touchdown runs of 36, 36, and 40 on the offensive side of the ball. As a defensive back, he also had a 53-yard pick-six with just 37 seconds left in the first half to give the Crushers a 33-0 lead heading into the half.
“He has that in him,” Leach pointed out. “He could do that every week. Just had a little issue with the fumbling, but also on the defense side, he got a pick-six.”
Also having a good night running the ball for the Crushers was Jefferey Page who scored on runs from 2 and 42 yards out while churning out 139 yards for the night on 12 carries.
Carson McCaffrey found the end zone on a 14-yard run as well. He finished the game with 58 yards on 3 carries.
It also helped that Vintage kept constant pressure on Napa the whole game as they came away with 10 sacks in the contest.
As for Napa (4-6, 0-6 VVAL), they got all of their scores in the second half. This was led by junior quarterback Diego Montanez, who accounted for all three of the Grizzlies’ scores in the game.
He completed 15 of 27 passes in the game for 166 yards with touchdown passes of 4 yards to Yovanni Palma and then 21 yards to Fisher MacDonald. He also scored on a 6-yard run in the game as well.
This is the end of the first season of the Chris Harris era as well. Though the record might not show it, the program made some gains this season. But in order for the program to get where the coaches envision it going, it will take time. The offseason begins for Napa in two weeks’ time.
“We have growth,” Yepson said. “There was two wins last year. Two wins last year as a program, and we had 10 this year. So I can’t say more than these kids worked their butt off, and I can’t wait to see what a full offseason happens with us in the weight room, eating, getting bigger.”
With the Harris staff taking over in March, they didn’t have a full offseason. Going into next season, the program will have a full year to be ready for 2024.
As for Vintage who narrowed the Big Game series to 29-21-2 after the win, they will have a home date with Petaluma next Friday night at 7 pm in the regular-season finale. A win over Petaluma next week would also help secure a playoff spot as well.
In the other lone VVAL game of the night on Friday, Justin-Siena beat Sonoma Valley 31-28. The Egg Bowl between Casa Grande and Petaluma will take place at 3 p.m. today at Petaluma.
