Crazy finish as Vintage falls to Acalanes

In a game where the plot seemed to change course multiple times, the Vintage High
football team lost to the Acalanes Dons 28-27 in their home opener.

Vintage’s Jesus Galvan blasted into the end zone from 1-yard away to pull within 28-27
with 1:05 left in the contest. Vintage opted to go for the two-point conversion and the lead.
The Crushers, however, were whistled for an illegal substitution which backed them up
five yards. In which case, the plan changed to go got the extra point and the tie. Kicker
Eddy Gonzalez missed the extra point and the Dons were initially flagged for roughing
the kicker but after a lengthy discussion, the officiating crew determined the ball was
tipped, thus nullifying the penalty. Acalanes recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran
out the clock to drop Vintage to 0-2. The Crushers visit Lincoln (Stockton) next week.  

“They said it tipped so the penalty didn’t count but that’s not the part of the game that
decided it, you go back to the first quarter when we made mistakes,” Vintage head coach
Dylan Leach said. “If we didn’t have mental mistakes and execution mistakes we wouldn’t
be in this position.”

The game started about as auspiciously as the Crushers could have asked looking for a
bounceback after last week’s 35-7 debacle of a loss at Wood (Vacaville). Vintage took
the opening drive and methodically marched 12 plays and 80 yards of real estate for 5:52.
Quarterback Jacob Aaron capped the drive with a 20-yard run. Michael Webber added the
two-point conversion to put the Crushers ahead 8-0. Aaron showed a lot of promise
completing a 56-yard touchdown pass to Michael Webber and gaining 78 yards rushing
on 11 carries to lead a Vintage running game that tallied 241 yards. Viliami Schaumkel
added 70 yards on 14 carries.

“I thought Jacob played a pretty good game,” Leach said. “We missed the slant and go
in the second quarter but for the most part he made some great reads and good runs.
He’s got a lot of moxie. Most importantly he hates to lose more than he loves to win. I
think moving forward the future looks really bright here at Vintage.”

On the Dons’ first play Angel Castillo intercepted quarterback Nick Kresnak to give Vintage
possession at the Acalanes’ 31-yard line. The Crushers marched to the 6 but got no further.
Acalanes responded with 28 unanswered points. Kresnak completed 17-of-29 passes for
312 yards and four touchdowns and at times showed great improvisation. Chris Rogers,
who caught five passes for 139 yards, was on the receiving end for two scores, 58 and 5
yards. Jack Muren scored on a sensational diving 30-yard grab. Lucas Eppinger caught
a 58-yard scoring pass.

Acalanes led 28-8 with 1:00 left in the third quarter before the aforementioned
Aaron-to-Webber 56-yard aerial. Aaron later added a 29-yard run of his own.

“I thought the first half was absolutely terrible,” Leach said. “We went down on the first drive
and chunked them. That’s what we planned on doing but had some mental mistakes and
breakdowns but I’m happy with the second half as far as showing some fight.”

“You have to make adjustments and I thought we made the right ones. I thought we had
the right play calls but you can’t start that way. They were in the exact same defense that
we knew they would be in.”

Defensively for Vintage, Pedja Zivkovic and Troy Ghisletta had a sack and tackle for loss.
Castillo had a fumble recovery as well as his aforementioned interception. Viliami
Schaumkel had four impact tackles (gains resulting in 0-3 yards). Zach Daniels and
Ghisletta each had two. Colton Foster, danye Contreras, Castillo and Zivkovic each had one.