Las Lomas uses strong passing game to beat Vintage in opener, despite strong game from Porter
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It’s hard to beat a team when they have a quarterback who spreads the ball all over and just makes it impossible to defend.
In Friday night’s season-opener, this is what Las Lomas junior quarterback Dylan Thomas did as he led the Knights past Vintage, 28-14, in a game played at Napa Memorial Stadium.
The main reason why Las Lomas was so potent on offense was their junior quarterback Dylan Thomas who compiled 267 yards through the air while completing 22 of 37 passes for 4 touchdowns.
His first scoring connection came with 4:25 left in the first quarter when he found Roman Mercado for a 14-yard score to give the Knights a 7-0 lead.
With the half winding down, Thomas found Daniel Downes to give Las Lomas a 14-0 lead with 2:02 left to play before the break.
Las Lomas also scored with 6:34 left in the third when Thomas found Kaden Lagaya for a 4-yard touchdown.
The Knights put the game away with just 4:55 left when Thomas found Colby Cooley for a 2-yard score to go up 28-14. This was the final dagger needed to end the game after it had been close the whole second half.
From the start, the Knights (1-0) were able to move the ball in whatever fashion they wanted. This was a theme of the contest as they churned out 440 yards of total offense in the game.
“If a team is better conditioned and is physically stronger than you, then you’re going to run into fourth-quarter woes in the run game,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach said as to how the Knights just wore down the defense. “We’re used to doing that to people. I told our team this. This is big-boy football. There’s a reason why they’re ranked where they are.”
One of the things that stood out in the second half was that the Crushers never backed down from the Knights who came in ranked as the No. 15 team in the North Coast Section fresh off of a trip to the section title game.
“We didn’t shy away from anything and that’s a huge plus,” Leach said of his team playing tough against good competition. “I felt like that was a bigger, stronger, tougher, faster team than we were. And if the team is bigger, faster, stronger, and tougher, schemes don’t matter. It just evens out, and then they ended up taking its toll on us. But I love our attitude. I love the fight and the dog (mentality). We have it. We just got to hone in and make sure that we’re in shape and ready to go.”
However, Vintage (0-1) was never out of the game. The trouble they had was finishing drives early on and some turnovers. But the standout of the game was junior quarterback Blake Porter who was in control of the offense all night and made some outstanding throws. In the game, he completed 9 of 14 passes for 170 yards and a long 56-yard touchdown to Lucas Henry right before the half, which made it just a one-score game with 37 ticks left to play.
“He’s playing really well,” Leach added of the junior quarterback. “He’s understanding what we’re trying to ask of him. He’s comfortable in the pocket, and when he got flushed, he still kept his eyes up and looked downfield, and made a couple (of) throws. So really excited about Blake and his progress, and he’s just learning how to become a leader and learning how to deal with situations and deal with adversity.”
It was a bit of an odd game from the Crushers from the point where they left the contest with more yards through the air than on the ground, which is far from normal in years past. But when you have the players to pass the ball, you do it.
“It’s funny because I said that before, and I go back to when I was the OC (at Napa High) with Kiel Brown and Austin Aaron, we threw 65% of the time,” Leach pointed out. “Everyone’s like ‘Oh your offense isn’t that.’ No, my offense is based on the players we have and the players we’ve had the last three years could not throw and catch. So the players we have this year can do that, and we could actually, I’ll go even further. We couldn’t protect as well, and now we’re protecting well.”
At the beginning of the final frame, Vintage again cut the deficit to seven with a methodical drive that culminated in a Jake Boldway 9-yard touchdown run with 11:54 to go in the game.
Vintage will now hit the road for a date with Fairfield next Friday night at 7:15 pm.
