Analy starts fast with a pair of scores right away to gain early edge, despite Napa’s strong ground effort
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Spotting a team a lead makes it hard to overcome, no matter the level you’re at.
In Friday night’s non-league game at Memorial Stadium, Analy-Sebastapol jumped out fueled by turnovers to beat Napa High, 42-21.
Despite rushing for 122 yards in the game, the turnovers were one of main reasons the result wasn’t the one Napa (0-2) wanted.
“It seemed like when we when we started running with consistency, it went well,” Napa High head coach Chris Harris said of the strong ground game. “We were doing some things on the edges that were blocking really well upfront. I think we kind of just shot ourselves on the foot with some early turnovers.”
The Tigers (1-1) raced out to a quick 14-0 lead, showing how potent their offense can be. They scored a pair of touchdowns within 47 seconds of each other.
To begin the scoring in the game, Victor Villarreal raced into the end zone for a 10-yard score with 9:05 left to go in the first quarter. Shortly after that, Analy took advantage of a turnover when Caden Lewis found Eddie Espinal for a 19-yard touchdown.
“I love the fact they didn’t quit,” Harris said of his team fight that he saw after they got down early. “We’re young and we’re working we’re working hard, and we’re going to keep working hard.
Villarreal also scored with 8:05 left to play from 28 yards for his second trip to the end zone. He ended the night with 12 carries for 116 yards and a pair of scores.
On the next drive, Napa (0-2) showed their first sign of life when they had the longest scoring play of the night. This scoring play came when Rocco Capponi found Jacob Withey streaking down the sideline for a long 53-yard scoring play to make it a one-score game again. It also capped off an 8-yard drive, which took just four plays.
However, the momentum gained was short-lived as Lewis kept dishing out touchdown passes to his receivers. He found Josef Cook for a 30-yard pass with 5:24 left in the first quarter.
Then, with 9:58 to play in the first half, he found Aiden Dunn for a 6-yard score. Both of these gave Analy a convincing 28-7 lead. With just 5.1 left in the first half, Lewis again connected with Espinal, this time for a 2-yard score. That score before the half was also a bit of a backbreaker as Napa had been close to stops a few times on that drive.
The Grizzlies again fought back to get back within two scores when Capponi found Junior Nogales for a 17-yard touchdown with 4:03 left in the second quarter.
In the contest, the junior signal-caller completed 8 of 15 passes for 2 touchdowns through the air. He also showed off his dual-threat ability when he raced into the end zone from 13 yards out with just 3:50 left in the game in a read-option play. Capponi rushed 4 times for 62 yards in the contest.
In the second half of this one, the game was much more even despite the score. They buckled down in the second half and held the Tigers to just a score.
“Our defensive coaches just did a really good job of coaching them up at halftime,” Harris pointed out of the strong defense his team played in the second half. “A lot of the stuff that we saw, we were just, you know, we were one step away, and it seemed like we were just kind of relaxed, let them get settled and just play our base defense and they did a good job.”
Napa will be back in action next Friday night at 7 pm when they face Montgomery in Santa Rosa.
