Vintage vaults out to early lead, puts game away late to beat Fairfield in offensive track meet

By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaSportsNews @NapaKyle

You can learn a lot about a team when they’re faced with some adversity. In football, there will undoubtedly be some over a season.

In Friday night’s non-league contest, Vintage overcame some of this to beat Fairfield, 49-24, at Memorial Stadium. 

Out of the half, Fairfield was able to make a game of this as they scored three times using their passing attack. 

On two of the touchdowns, quarterback Tristen Smith found Donavan Luu to get into the end zone. The first one came with 8:31 left to go in the third quarter. Following that score, Fairfield recovered a squib kick to get the ball back before the connection hooked up again for a 29-yard score with 7:59 left in the third. 

In the game, Smith completed 16 of 26 passes for 206 yards, and Luu caught 5 passes for 87 yards. 

“There’s a reason why we schedule these guys,” Vintage head coach Dylan Leach explained of the passing attack. “They’re fast, they’re tough, they’re athletic, they have a really good pass offense, and the quarterback can scramble. And we know that in order to be successful in our league and anywhere in football, we need to play these type of teams to face that speed, and adversity, and face those guys that can run around.” 

Despite that comeback due to some other circumstances, the Crushers kept battling and scoring to finally put the game away behind a pair of fourth-quarter scores. The first of those came when Porter scored on a 5-yard run with 8:34 to go. He finished the game with 16 yards on the ground on 6 carries. 

“We kept our composure,” Vintage senior Ruben Sanchez said of overcoming a tough second half to still come away with the win. “We didn’t yell at each other. We stuck as a team, and that’s what it that’s what matters.” 

Vintage (2-0) owned the first half of the game as they were able to race to a 22-0 lead in the blink of an eye. Their first score came when Jaxon Keener scored on a 19-yard run. 

Then, with 2:09 left in the first quarter, Porter scored on a 1-yard rushing play. This came following a nice 32-yard play where Porter found Sanchez to set up the score. Sanchez also scored on the two-point try to get it to 15-0. 

Near the end of the first half, the Crushers scored on a 1-yard plunge into the end zone by Bo Lode. This score came with 8:51 remaining in the first half. Lode carried the ball 6 times for 8 yards in the game.  

Parker Dahl found the end zone with 1:36 left to play in the first half to give Vintage a 29-3 halftime lead. 

The Falcons (0-3) got on the board with 4:34 to go in the first half when they drove the ball down to the Crushers’ 10-yard line before settling for a 27-yard field goal by Angel Lopez. 

The last score by the Falcons came when Smith found Desten Torrence for a 32-yard score with 2:37 to play in the third. 

In the contest, the senior wide receiver caught 6 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown. This included two key catches to move the chains. One of the reasons he’s able to do this is the incredible rapport he has with quarterback Blake Porter, who can throw him open when needed. 

“Our first play of the game, I dropped it was wide open as a play made for me, and it is what it is,” Sanchez said as to how Porter looked for him all night.  “But that first catch that I had really started the flow with us, and he started looking for me, and is great.” 

His lone touchdown came on a long 56-yard pass from Porter with 4:40 to go in the third quarter. 

“I’ve been seeing this from Ruben since he was a kid, and watching him do these things,” Leach explained. “And he’s a tough customer, and he’s got over everything. He faced a lot of adversity in that injury, but he’s back, and he’s doing the things that he’s always done, and I love the kid. He’s just awesome and fun to be around.

The final score of the game came with just 1:04 left on a Tysin Costella 3-yard rush. 

Vintage will be back in action next week when they head to Vacaville to face Wood at 7:30 pm.