Sports
Football: Las Lomas Crushes Vintage 42-7
Las Lomas' Waters rushes for 171 yards and two scores in runaway victory against Vintage.
Las Lomas 42, Vintage 7
The Star: Marquis Waters tore apart the Vintage defense for 130 yards and two touchdowns, one running and passing in the first half alone.
The Turning Point: After Las Lomas gave up a 96-yard kick return and then a quick rushing touchdown to soften its lead to just one score in the second quarter, Jake Villa fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Vintage recovered. After slowly driving the ball 35 yards in 11 plays, the Crushers had a fourth-and-one at the one, and Vintage's Zach Zuniga was dropped just short of the goal line for a turnover on downs.
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The Quote: "We played really well on offense tonight. They did a hell of a job and played hard," head coach Doug Longero said.
What's next? The Knights' will host Marin Catholic next Friday at 7 p.m.
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Bottom Line: Las Lomas shows both good and bad in a non-league game, with special teams faltering at times, but a strong showing by Waters and a momentum-swinging goal-line stand canceled the miscues this week.
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Marquis Waters showed how dynamic of a running back he can be Friday night.
Waters tallied 201 total yards and scored twice, showing off his talent as Las Lomas High dominated Vintage 42-0 at Dodd Field in Napa.
"He's the best player. He got his yards tonight. He's a big part of this team and this offense," coach Doug Longero said.
Waters rushed for 49 yards and a score on the opening drive of the game, and followed with 48 rushing yards and two receptions for 48 yards including a touchdown catch on Las Lomas' third drive of the game. He finished with 171 yards rushing.
It wasn't just Waters who had a good night, the Knights' offense couldn't be stopped. Jake Villa ran for 77 yards and a score and Kevin Merhoff caught two passes for 48 yards and a touchdown.
Las Lomas was crisp on both offense and defense, but will need to clean up its play on special teams before next week.
After Waters caught a nine-yard pass from Jackson Miller to make it a 13-0 lead, Crushers' return man Brandon Gant returned the kickoff 96 yards to the Las Lomas one-yard line, where Zach Zuniga pounded the ball in for the score to make it 13-7.
Las Lomas' Jake Villa took the ensuing kickoff and fumbled and Vintage recovered at the Knights' 35. The Crushers drove the ball to the one-yard line, but a goal line stand stopped Vintage cold. The stop was the last real chance the home team had to score.
"It was a great effort by those guys," Longero said. He also said that the young guys were still learning and that there were a lot of things to improve on, even with the blowout win.
After that, the Knights executed a two-minute drill to perfection from the spot of that stand, driving 99 yards in 12 plays, capped with a Miller four-yard pass to Danny Smith for a 21-7 halftime lead.
Miller rebounded from a slow start, missing four of his first five targets, to complete 4 of 5 passes for 60 yards during that drive, impressing Longero.
"He played a hell of a game," he said.
Miller finished 9-of-14 for 125 yards and three touchdowns.
Miller's other score put the game away for good, a 22-yard strike to Villa running a crossing pattern across the center of the field to make it a 28-7 game.
Vintage came out throwing after that, but Max Kessler intercepted Crushers' quarterback Adam Duprez handing the ball back to the Las Lomas offense, which had no problem turning it into points. Villa's six-yard run pushed it to 35-7 late in the third and Ardell Romez scampered for a three-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter for the final count.
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Las Lomas 42, Vintage 7
Las Lomas 7 14 14 7 — 42
Vintage 0 7 0 0 — 7
Scoring summary
8:03, 1st: Waters 3 run (Howard kick)
9:29, 2nd: Waters 9 pass from Miller (kick failed)
9:00, 2nd: Zuniga 1 run (Figueora kick)
0:11, 2nd: Smith 4 pass from Miller (Waters pass from Miller)
6:28, 3rd: Villa 22 pass from Miller (Howard kick)
2:06, 3rd: Villa 6 run (Howard kick)
6:28 4th: Romez 3 run (Howard kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing (car-yards): LL — Waters 17-171, Romez 6-34, Villa 10-77, Ow 3-4, Sabella 5-16, Miller 1-1, Singh 1-(-3). VIN— Zuniga 20-91, Nash 1-0, Szekely 2-23, Claudio 3-5, Duprez 1-(-1), Pawloski 2-3.
Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): LL — Miller 9-14-125-0. VIN — Duprez 2-10-20-1.
Receiving (rec-yards): LL — Waters 3-30, Smith 3-33, Ow 1-14, Merhoff 2-48. VIN — Carruth 1-5, Gant 1-15.
Team offense (rush-pass-total)
Las Lomas — 424-125-299
Vintage — 135-20-115
Fumbles/lost: LL —2/1; VIN— 3/0.
Records: Las Lomas 1-0, Vintage 0-1.
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