Napa Valley High School Football: Vintage races past Napa, 42-8, in Big Game LIII

Before every NASCAR race, former Fox Sports color commentator Darrell Waltrip would say "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, let's go racing, guys!"

In Big Game LIII on Friday night at Memorial Stadium, the Vintage football team's performance fit the NASCAR theme quite well as the Crushers raced to the end zone all night in a 42-8 win over crosstown rival Napa High.

Vintage (4-1) vaulted out to a 13-0 lead in the blink of an eye. On the Crushers' first drive, they showed how efficient their offense can be as it took them just two plays and 15 seconds to score. Following a 19-yard completion to Travis Larsen, quarterback Blake Porter found a wide-open Ruben Sanchez over the middle for a 61-yard score with 11:15 left in the first quarter.

Vintage's Ruben Sanchez (7) reacts after scoring a touchdown in the first quarter of a football game against crosstown rival Napa High at Memo...

They scored again on a 29-yard scramble by Porter. He rushed three times for 32 yards on the night, also finding the end zone on a 1-yard rush with 6:05 left in the second quarter.

"I just think that it was execution we talked about," Vintage head coach Dylan Leach said of the fast start. "It was like getting ourselves in a position to make plays and we made those plays by executing."

Vintage quarterback Blake Porter (10) dives for a touchdown in the first quarter of a football game against crosstown rival Napa High at Memor...

Porter continued to deal from the pocket. In between his rushing scores, he found Owen Ferguson for a 37-yard scoring strike on a flea flicker play with 11:51 remaining in the first half.

Porter completed 5 of 11 passes for 140 yards and two scores on the evening. The only thing he didn't do in the game was catch a touchdown pass. No matter how you slice it, he had full control of the offense and is only getting better by the week.

Porter was also named the Napa Valley Register's Vintage Big Game LIII MVP.

Napa's Josue Victorino (34) runs the ball in for a touchdown during a football game against crosstown rival Vintage High at Memorial Stadium o...

"It's his improvement. It's daily," Leach added. "It's the process, and I think he likes it. I can't be more happy with where I'm at with him and where we are together, because I think we see a lot of the same things, and we have the same visions moving forward and we get after each other."

The Crushers also spread the ball around on the ground. After getting a commanding lead, they used a multitude of running backs in a variety of different ways to move down the field.

Bo Lode found the end zone from a yard out with just 19.7 seconds left to give the Crushers a 35-0 halftime lead.

Vintage's Bo Lode (44) runs back an interception during a football game against crosstown rival Napa High at Memorial Stadium on Friday, October 4.

However, the biggest play from all of the running backs came when Kayen West hit the hole hard and found the end zone on a 35-yard run with 1:16 left in the third quarter. Henry Drozdowicz made the extra point to cap a 6 for 6 night, making it 42-0.

It was Vintage's only score of the second half.

"It's just my style," Leach said of spreading out the wealth on the ground. "I've been doing this for a long time and I try to get as many guys the ball. I try to get the guys the ball that deserve it, who work hard in practice and are doing the right thing. So I think it's important to spread the ball around. If we were in a situation where I needed to ride a horse, I would have done that, but we just weren't in that situation tonight."

The Vintage football team rings the bell after defeating crosstown rival Napa High in Big Game Llll at Memorial Stadium on Friday, October 4.

Napa (0-5 overall) was able to come out of the half and go on a long drive that took up nearly the whole third quarter. The Grizzlies did this by using the Wildcat formation and having Junior Nogales and Josue Victorino run the ball.

"Our kids fought," Napa High head coach Chris Harris said of the long drive to begin the second half. "It's hard when you've got guys going down, you've got 26 on the roster. It's hard to keep fighting and they did and I'm proud of them for that. It's halftime adjustments. We made a couple of halftime adjustments on where they were lined up and tried to exploit that. We did that in the third quarter."

They finally broke into the end zone on a Victorino run from 10 yards out with 5:48 left to play.

"He's a tough kid and we were getting after him in that third quarter," Harris said of Victorino, who was named the Register's Napa High Big Game LIII MVP. "We did a good job running the ball, staying between the tackles."

Napa quarterback Diego Reyes (16) throws a pass during a football game against crosstown rival Vintage High at Memorial Stadium on Friday, October 4.

Vintage extended its Big Game winning streak to eight, which is the school's longest in the series' history. Napa still leads the all-time series with a 29-21-2 record.

It didn't matter that it was the first nonleague Big Game since 2002.

"It means everything," Leach said of continuing the winning streak in the rivalry. "I told them two nights ago, I told them last night in our meetings, and I told them today in walkthroughs, like this game means everything. This game should mean everything to this community, and we have to go out and prove that we work really hard in this program and we deserve to get this win."

Members of the Napa High marching band cheer as their drum corp battles with the band of crosstown rival Vintage High before the start of a fo...

Big Game used to be a league finale that helped get one or both teams ready for the intensity of the playoffs. Now they must gather their emotions and try to stay healthy for five more games.

Vintage will begin Redwood Empire Conference-Adobe league play next Friday, when they head to Rohnert Park to face Rancho Cotate at 7 p.m.

The Vintage High marching band makes its way onto the field before the start of a football game against crosstown rival Napa High at Memorial ...

Napa will try to improve on its 0-1 in REC-Valley league record when it hosts Petaluma next Friday at 7 p.m. It will be Hall of Fame Night. It will be the second straight trip to Napa for Petaluma, which won at Justin-Siena in overtime Friday, 18-12.