Off to the races: Vintage starts fast to beat Napa in Big Game LIII, extend winning streak in series to eight
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
There have been times when a NASCAR race is a bit of a non-contest from the drop of the green flag. I’ve covered a few and they normally involve Kyle Larson or Martin Truex Jr. whooping the field.
In Friday’s Big Game LIII (53) at Memorial Stadium, Vintage raced out to a massive lead to roll past Napa High, 42-8.
This was the case right at the start of the game as the Crushers (4-1) vaulted out to a 13-0 lead in the blink of an eye. In their first drive, they showed how efficient the offense can be as it took them just 2 plays and 15 seconds to score. Following a 19-yard completion to Travis Larsen, Blake Porter found a wide-open Ruben Sanchez over the middle of the field for a long 61-yard score with 11:15 left in the first quarter.
They then scored again on a 29-yard scramble by Porter. In the game, he rushed three times for 32 yards after finding the end zone on a one-yard rush with 6:05 left in the second quarter.
“I just think that it was execution we talked about,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach said of the fast start his team raced out to. “It was like getting ourselves in a position to make plays and we made those plays by executing.”
Before that, Porter continued to deal from the pocket as he found Owen Ferguson for a 37-yard score with 11:51 remaining in the first half. In the game, Porter completed 5 of 11 passes for 140 yards and two scores. The only thing that Porter didn’t do in the game was catch a touchdown. No matter how you slice it, he had full control of the offense and is only getting better by the week. He was also named Vintage’s Napa Valley Register Big Game MVP.
“It’s his improvement, it’s daily,” Leach added. “It’s the process and I think he likes it. I think he loves the process, and I can be more happy with where I’m at with him and where we are together, because I think we see a lot of the same things, and we have the same visions moving forward and we get after each other.”
The Crushers also spread the ball around on the ground in the game. After getting a commanding lead, they used a multitude of running backs in a variety of different ways to move down the field.
Bo Lode found the end zone from a yard out with just 19.7 seconds left till the break to give the Crushers a 35-0 lead.
However, the biggest play from all of the running backs came when Kayen West hit the hole hard and found the end zone on a 35-yard run with 1:16 left in the third quarter. This would be Vintage’s only score in the second half.
“It’s just my style,” Leach said of spreading out the wealth on the ground. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I try to get as many guys the ball, try to get the guys the ball that deserve it, and then work hard in practice and they’re doing the right thing. So I think it’s important to spread the ball around and again if we were in a situation where I needed to ride a horse, I would have done that, but we just weren’t in that situation tonight.”
Napa (0-5) was able to come out of the half and go on a long drive that took up nearly the whole third quarter. They did this by running the wild cat formation and running the ball with Junior Nogales and Josue Victorino.
“Our kids fought,” Napa High head coach Chris Harris said of the long drive to begin the second half. “It’s hard when you’ve got guys going down, you’ve got 26 on the roster. It’s hard to keep fighting and they did and I’m proud of them for that. It’s halftime adjustments. We made a couple of halftime adjustments on where they were lined up and tried to exploit that. We did that in the third quarter.”
Then, they finally broke into the end zone when on a Victorino run from 10 yards out with 5:48 left to play.
“He’s a tough kid and we were getting after him in that third quarter,” Napa High head coach Harris said of Victorino who was named Napa High’s Napa Valley Register MVP in the game. “We did a good job running the ball, staying between the tackles.”
With the win, Vintage extends their Big Game winning streak to 8, which is the school’s longest winning streak in the series’ history. Napa still leads the all-time series with a 29-21-2 lead. This was also the first non-league Big Game since 2002.
“It means everything,” Leach said of continuing the winning streak in the rivalry. “I told them two nights ago, and I told them last night in our meetings, I told them today in walkthroughs like this game means everything. This game should mean everything to this community, and we have to go out and prove that we work really hard in this program and we deserve to get this win.”
Both teams will now have to gather up the emotions of the game that are normally at the end of the season and get into league play. Vintage will begin Redwood Empire – Adobe play next Friday at 7 when they head to Rohnert Park to face Rancho Cotate.
As for Napa, they’ll now host Petaluma next Friday at 7 pm. It will be Hall of Fame Night as well. Petaluma beat Justin-Siena 18-12 and will be making a second straight trip to Napa.
