Casa Grande hands Vintage its first VVAL loss

In the middle of a track meet, an old-fashioned slug-it-out football game broke out Friday night at Casa Grande High School.

When the chilly autumn evening finally came to a heated conclusion, Casa Grande’s Gauchos had held on for a 46-44 win over Vintage in the Vine Valley Athletic League opener for both teams. The loss was the first ever for the two-time defending league champion Crushers to a fellow VVAL team.

After a wild first half that saw both teams race madly up and down the field to a 30-30 standoff, things settled into much more of an intense defensive struggle in the second half.

What it finally all boiled down to was a Casa Grande stop on a Vintage two-point conversion attempt after the Crushers had matched the Gauchos with their sixth touchdown of the night with 4:54 left in the long game.

That score, coming on a fourth-down 1-yard plunge by quarterback Tytan Bradley, cut a 46-38 Casa Grande lead to 46-44 and put Vintage in a position to tie the game with a successful conversion.

Vintage sent workhorse running back Dylan Smith smashing into the meshed offensive and defensive lines, where he was met by a pack of Casa Grande tacklers led by Ryan Kasper and Joey Mercado. The stopped saved the lead and the game for the Gauchos.

There was a great deal of intensity over the final minutes, with both sides forcing rare punts before Casa Grande quarterback Jacob Porteous took a final knee and the Casa Grande celebration began.

Casa Grande coach John Antonio understated the feeling of players, coaches and students who came piling out of the stands at the final buzzer when he said simply, “I’m excited.”

He added, “I’m excited for our players and our coaches. They have worked so hard for this.”

They also had to play hard against a Vintage team that matched the vaunted Casa Grande passing game with a steamrolling running attack. But there was much more thrown into the stew - from breakaway runs to long kick returns, crucial open-field tackles, an interception-return touchdown and critical turnovers.

Every tick of the clock seemed to bring a new twist or turn.

On Vintage’s second offensive play of the night, Bradley broke loose for a 45-yard touchdown. The Crushers then set the conversion standard for the night when Bradley passed for two points, putting up a no-kicking ordinance for the remainder of the game.

Casa Grande immediately retaliated with a 63-yard passing-inspired drive that ended with running back Ryder Jacobsen rushing into the end zone from one yard out. Porteous bootlegged in the conversion and the race was on.

Before the first half ended, both sides had 30 points and neither had shown signs of slowing. Among the many highlights for Casa were a 60-plus-yard kickoff return by Caden Cramer to set up a touchdown pass from Portheous to Shane Runyeon and a 29-yard return of a partially blocked Vintage punt to the house by Kasper.

“We made some mistakes early,” said Antonio, “but they listened at the half; they didn’t give up and they executed better.”

Casa Grande’s second-half improvement was not immediately apparent. On the second play of the third quarter, Vintage’s Ali Johnson stepped in front of a Porteous pass and had nothing but 39 yards of Casa Grande artificial turf between him and the goal line. With the (what else?) two-point conversion, Vintage led 38-30.

However, Casa Grande’s defense, aided by fumble recoveries by Kodi Cornelius and Esteban Sierra, managed to stop all but a final Vintage drive the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, Casa Grande got even on a 10-yard screen pass and went ahead on a 5-yard run by Jacobson to set up the closing tension.

For the game, Casa Grande had 314 total yards, with Porteous connecting on 23 of 39 passes for 369 yards, while Jacobson carried 11 times for 43 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Antonio, while elated with the win, pointed out that there is still a lot of football ahead for the 3-1 Gauchos.

“I’m proud of our team, but we can’t let it stop here,” he said. “We still have a season to play.”