Following a slow start, Vintage gets offense going to roll past Novato in history-making inaugural flag football game

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By Kyle Foster

Kfost91197@gmail.com 

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

Making history is cool. But making history and winning, that’s something that will never be forgotten. 

On Monday night at Memorial Stadium, this is what the Vintage girls flag football team did as they beat Novato, 53-0, in the inaugural game in Napa County history for the brand-new sport. 

The Crushers (1-0) opened up the scoring with a 30-yard receiving touchdown by Sydney Morton on a pass from Sammie Kennedy. This was the first touchdown in program history. It came when there was 6:44 remaining in the first period. 

“It’s actually super special to me because I’ve been wanting to play flag for a super long time, and we’ve all been working pretty hard at practice,” Morton said of catching the first-ever touchdown in program history. So it means a lot that I got to have the first touchdown, which is pretty cool.”

From there, Vintage took over and was in complete control of the game. With 10:22 left in the first half, Kennedy again found Morton for a touchdown, this time from 13 yards out. The pair would connect again for the opening score of the second half on an 18-yard connection with 10:00 left in the third.   

It helps that these two play every sports season together. This made it so they were able to get on the same page quickly. 

“I think that us playing sports together, she knows what I can do, and I know what she can do,” Morton added. “So I feel like we have like that kind of like telepathic type thing. So it’s like it just makes us do a lot better together. I feel like every team we’re on, we’re very successful.” 

In the game, Morton finished with 3 catches for 61 yards. On top of that, she added 2 rushes for 16 yards. With her athleticism, the goal is to get her in space. 

“That’s big for Syd. Syd is a great leader. She’s someone who the team looks up to, and we go as Syd go,” Vintage head coach Damen Jones said. “So my goal was to come out here today and get Syd going, get Sam going, and I knew that the cavalry would follow behind them, and it means everything to the school. Means everything to come out here and in front of these fans, and just be able to put on a great performance for them.” 

Kennedy continued to throw touchdowns with 5:42 remaining in the half when she found Kimberly Uffmann for a 10-yard score. This was the sophomore’s only catch in the contest. 

Then, with 2:02 left in the half, Kennedy found Jordan Remmert for a 10-yard scoring play.   Afterwards, Vintage converted the two-point try when Kennedy found Aranza Aguilar. 

The Crushers ended the half with Kennedy finding Maillee McConnell for a 7-yard score. Aguilar again converted the extra point from Kennedy to give Vintage a 34-0 lead at the break. McConnell also added a 36-yard pick-six with 2:45 left in the game. 

Kennedy completed 11 of 14 passes in the game for 185 yards. She also rushed 12 times for 107 yards in the contest.    

Scoring the only rushing touchdown in the game was Victoria Perez. She found the end zone on an 8-yard rush with 45.3 left in the third quarter.  

After a first quarter where Vintage scored just once, they scored 47 straight points. This was due in large part to them settling in after maybe having some nerves in the opening frame. 

“We had butterflies, which is okay. That’s natural, right?” Jones explained. “It’s normal to have butterflies. That’s nothing that’s unique. I believe that once we were able to settle in and execute the offense and go through our progressions, that’s when you started seeing us run up the score a bit.” 

The win was historic in so many ways. But it was also rewarding because Vintage had been practicing since July for this exact moment. 

“We work almost every day,” Morton added. “We run sprints all practice. Like it’s we work super hard. Our whole team does. We’re like always going like super like long hours after practice. Well, not hours, like minutes. And I think that’s what made us super successful. And especially our coach, he like believes in us the most, which helps like make a better athlete.” 

On top of all of that, this was Jones’s first game against Novato, the place where he spent the 2025 season as the head coach.    

“To be honest, I got a lot of respect for those girls and the coaches, and I appreciate them for coming out here and giving us a tough matchup,” Jones explained of facing the team he coached just last year. “Thank you to (Principal) Michelle (Cortez) for giving me my first opportunity, and I still have a lot of players over there on that side of the field, and it was good to see some of those girls. Good to see they’re still playing, and good to see them get after it.  wish them luck for the rest of their season, and we got them again in September, so that’d be a good one.” 

Vintage will be back in action on Wednesday at 7 pm when they host Maria Carrillo-Santa Rosa.