Napa Valley High School Football: Napa High looks improved as tough tests come up
You can learn a lot about your football team over the first three weeks of the season. It's a great chance to grow, especially when facing teams that are better than you.
In Napa High's 28-0 loss at Montgomery in Santa Rosa on Sept. 13, the Grizzlies (0-3) showed improvement in several areas, lead assistant coach and offensive coordinator Chris Yepson said.
"What stood out was how we cut down on pre-snap penalties on offense, something we worked hard on in practice," Yepson said. "We're aware teams will watch the film and try to replicate what Montgomery did defensively, so we've been preparing for that during the bye week. Our main focus was on getting healthy, improving press coverage, and winning more one-on-one battles offensively.
"We had an opportunity to score that we couldn't capitalize on, which has been a recurring issue for us this season — turnovers in crucial situations and penalties."
Maybe the best part of the game for the Grizzlies was that they kept the Vikings on the ground.
"Defensively, we did what we set out to do, which was to stop the pass, holding them to 108 yards," Yepson explained. "However, we struggled to contain the run as effectively as I would have liked. We saw three-quarters of strong effort, which was an improvement. But in the last eight minutes, our players had a tough time finishing the game, which is understandable with only 26 players suited up."
The four touchdowns Napa gave up against Montgomery didn't look so bad this past Friday night, when the Vikings handed Healdsburg its first loss, 50-20. The Greyhounds had been allowing only 24 points a game going in.
Napa had its bye last week, giving the Grizzlies a chance to heal up before their league opener and nonleague finale.
"The next three games will be tough, but the bye week gave us a chance to rest and get some of our banged-up players back," Yepson said. "With our limited roster, every player has to contribute, whether it's on offense, defense, or special teams, so we're coaching everyone to make sure they can give us a spark when needed."
They will begin Redwood Empire Conference-Valley Division play on Friday night when they visit Casa Grande. The Gauchos were last year's Vine Valley Athletic League champions and return 2023 VVAL Player of the Year Danny Mercado at quarterback.
After that, they'll meet Vintage in Big Game LIII on Oct. 4. A home game against Petaluma on Oct. 11 will be their second Valley Division game.
In order to have a chance in these games, Napa is going to have to run the ball for a multitude of reasons. It helps keep the clock running and wears the defense out on the other side. So far, the young offense has made some strides.
"Our young offense is led by three senior linemen, Erik Cigarroa, Natan Chowell and Kyle Blackwood," Yepson said. "We have to run our offense through them. While we've had some consistency running the football, we need to improve our passing game when teams load the box. The key to growth will come from a better understanding of the offensive system overall."
