Napa Valley High School Football: Gauchos gain from Grizzlies’ gaffes, roll 49-0
PETALUMA - There are a lot of ways a quality opponent can make a struggling football team pay for mistakes.
Napa High saw a lot of that in a 49-0 loss at Casa Grande in its Redwood Empire Conference Valley Division opener Friday night.
It wasn't the kind of performance second-year head coach Chris Harris wanted to see from the Grizzlies (0-4 overall) the week before his team faces cross-town rival Vintage in Big Game LIII.
"We have to play better, obviously," Harris said. "It was a terrible outing tonight. I need to coach better. We need to make sure we work harder during practice. That's going to be a big focus of ours, because we definitely weren't ready to go tonight. There was some scheme stuff that we changed from the previous weeks to this week, kinda game-planning for this one, but obviously I didn't do a good enough job."
The Grizzlies went three-and-out to start the game, punting on fourth and 12 to the Casa 45-yard line. Two plays later, Luke Cilia hauled in a 45-yard touchdown pass from Danny Mercado, the 2023 Vine Valley Athletic League Player of the Year, and kicker Camden Bushey started a perfect extra-point night to make it 7-0 just 2:43 into the game.
Napa not only went three-and-out on its second series, but a high punt snap gave the Gauchos the ball at the Grizzlies' 6. Enzo Murray punched it in from the 1 two plays later to make it 14-0.
The Grizzlies finally achieved a first down in their third series, on an 11-yard keeper by quarterback Diego Reyes. But when he threw his first pass on third and 5, Bushey intercepted it and returned it 40 yards for a score and 21-0 lead.
Another three-and-out ensued, and another bad punt snap left Casa just 16 yards from the end zone.
Napa's defense finally showed life, forcing backup quarterback Joey Cerda to throw incomplete before Colton Ellis sacked him for no gain to force a fourth and 4. The Gauchos tried a 28-yard field goal try by Bushey, but it missed low.
Trying to build some momentum, Napa's offense stayed on the field for 10 plays on its fifth possession, thanks to a 33-yard scamper to the Casa 47 by Hector "Junior" Nogales on the first play.
"This week I had a bad knee, so I couldn't really play 100%, but I still think I gave a good amount of effort," Nogales said. "Maybe it wasn't enough, but I tried my best. I try to keep (my teammates') heads up, even when we're down by a lot. I try to keep their heads in it, because maybe if they don't work this week, maybe they'll work next week. We don't worry about the scoreboard, just keep working, go play by play."
Josue Victorino had the next three carries to set up a fourth and 3 that Reyes converted with a 5-yard keeper to the 35. But the drive stalled at the 29.
The Gauchos took over midway through the second quarter and Cerna got his first two completions, a 17-yarder that helped set up a 22-yard scoring strike to Jayden Pieri.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Casa kept Napa's sixth drive alive. But with Rocco Capponi now at quarterback, Jasper Farrar got the Gauchos' second pick-six of the night from 40 yards out to make it 35-0 with 2:30 left in the half.
Cerna was still on a roll to open the third quarter, opening with an 18-yard completion to Brady Laubscher and a 16-yarder to Wyatt Duff. On the sixth play, Cerna avoided a sack and bolted around the right side to paydirt to make it 42-0.
After Napa went three-and-out again and punted to its own 40, four carries by Ronan Curley got the ball to the 1. After a penalty on each team, he took it in from the 5 to cap the scoring with 3:31 left in the third quarter.
With a running clock in the fourth, Napa faced fourth and 40 after Nogales chased down two errant shotgun snaps. The game ended with the Gauchos at Napa's 6-yard line.
It's the second year in a row that Napa has been shut out by Casa Grande, which beat the Grizzlies 38-0 at Memorial Stadium last season. Not a lot of high school teams can capitalize on mistakes like the Gauchos, who went 6-0 in the VVAL last year and 5-1 in 2021.
"I don't want to take away from a good program. Casa Grande's a very good program," Harris said. "We just haven't put it together yet. We've got to go back to the drawing board and figure it out."
Asked if he's counting on the Grizzlies to see the magnitude of next week's game and practice and play better as a springboard for the rest of the season, Harris said they shouldn't be focusing on only Vintage.
"The magnitude of every game for us is huge," he said. "You're 0-4. Every game is a big game for us. We need to get back to the drawing board and make sure we bring the best 'us' to practice and make sure that we play the best that we can next Friday."
The Grizzlies scored a combined 49 points in their first two games against St. Patrick-St. Vincent and Analy before getting shut out by Montgomery and Casa.
Asked what Napa needs to do to move the ball better and score, Nogales said take its preparation seriously.
"We're definitely excited about next week, but we've got to work harder. We've got to keep working harder, because every time we don't perform, it just means we didn't work hard enough. We've got to bring the energy to practice," he said.
Vintage (3-1), which had a bye Friday night, will be playing Napa in a nonleague game for the first time ever. It may feel more like a trap game to the Crushers, who will visit Rancho Cotate in Rohnert Park on Oct. 11 for their Redwood Empire Conference Adobe Division opener. Vintage is currently ranked 23rd in the North Coast Section by MaxPreps.com and all five of its league opponents are in the top 19, so the Crushers will be hoping to take a four-game win streak into the Adobe Division gauntlet.
Meanwhile, Napa hopes to notch it up next week before continuing Valley Division action Oct. 11 with a home game against a Petaluma squad whose only win so far has been a 34-23 decision at Analy - a team that routed Napa 41-21.
Nogales said his team of 11 seniors, 12 juniors, six sophomores and a freshman needs to be more businesslike throughout the week.
"I feel like we all came here tonight and didn't take it seriously. When that happens, you get beat 49-0," he said. "That's what it stems from every game, just fooling around, before games. The coaches try to stop it, but we have a lot of young kids on our team who don't really understand.
"I think we can have another great game. We just need to work hard. Work hard and have the right mindset."
Casa Grande JV 43, Napa 0
The younger Grizzlies (3-1 overall) were also shut out for the second straight game, after beating St. Pats 14-0 and dropping a 13-6 nailbiter to Analy. They will face a 3-1 Vintage squad in the "Little Big Game" at 4:45 p.m. next Friday.
This story was originally published September 28, 2024, 7:02 AM.
