ANTIOCH, Calif - The Vintage football team pulled off one of their biggest wins in program history on Friday night with their 24-21 double-overtime victory over top-seeded Antioch, in the quarterfinals of the North Coast Section Division I playoffs.
“We fight, we’re fighters,” Vintage coach Dylan Leach said afterwards. “This crew knows this is what we do. We knew going in what we were up against, and we got down 14-0 and I told the kids ‘we won’t change a thing, we’re not going to panic, I don’t panic, we’re not going to start running things we don’t run’. I actually reverted back to our power run game and just took it to them the second half.”
That power run game brought the Crushers (10-2) back from a 14-point deficit early in the second half, and carried both teams into extra periods. When Antioch kicker Omar Curiel missed a field goal to conclude Antioch's possession of the second overtime period, Vintage knew all it needed was three points to win the game. Eddy Gonzalez came through by squeaking a 35-yard field goal through the uprights to win the game.
“I was like ‘squeak, c’mon get over’,” an enthusiastic Leach said of the game-winning kick. “Hey, he made it, and like I said to the team right there (postgame huddle) a lot of times that’s all people see and people want to talk about that and I appreciate Eddy and what he did - but let’s be real this game was won in four quarters and overtimes - so he was just a small piece of the puzzle.”
“I was nervous, but I said ‘we’re not going to go home it’s going to go in and we’re going to go celebrate tonight’,” Gonzalez said.
Down 14-0 after Antioch's Devonyae McClay returned the second half kickoff 85 yards for a score, Vintage rallied in the fourth quarter. Viliami Schaumkel scored from five yards out with 7:27 left in the game to get the Crushers on the board. Later, with 5:26 left in the game, and after an Antioch fumble, Schaumkel plunged into the end zone from two yards out to tie the game.
Antioch actually had a chance to win the game in regulation, but Curiel missed a game-winning attempt, and both teams continued to play on into the extra periods.
“You know it feels great,” Vintage senior Michael Webber. “I knew we could pull through. We’ve been saying all week that these guys may underestimate us, and we came out as underdogs.”
In the first overtime preiod, the Crushers scored first to claim their first lead of the contest, when Schaumkel again found the end zone - once again from two yards out. The game went to a second overtime after Antioch quarterback Karnthong found Tommy Jenkins for a 14-yard touchdown, his second touchdown pass of the night. Schaumkel's touchdown was also part of a big night for the senior, as he ran for 89 yards on 19 carries.
“Scoring three touchdowns on this team, Antioch the No. 1 seed, I’m just speechless because our line had a few early mistakes, but then towards crunch time they made it happen when we really needed it the most,” Schaumkel said.
The early part of the game was two teams feeling each other out, and after a scoreless first quarter, the first score of the game came with 3:58 left until halftime when Kamthong - Antioch's all-time leading passer - connected with Gaudie Campbell for a 34-yard touchdown. The Panthers later extended their lead on the kickoff return in the third quarter, but it was nearly all Vintage from that point forward.
Vintage lost sophomore quarterback Jacob Aaron to what appeared to be a left shoulder injury early in the game, but Troy Ghisletta shined in place of Aaron on the night.
“Troy’s a baller. What a great job he did,” Leach explained. “Losing Jacob, that’s hard to do right in the middle of the game, or beginning of the game. So losing him was a hard thing, but I give these guys a lot of reps. Troy gets a lot of reps, Michael gets a lot of reps, so we felt like this was the next step.”
“It feels great, but I knew we had it in us,” Ghisletta added. “Especially, it feels awesome to beat such a good team like that.”
For Antioch the season is now over. Meanwhile, Vintage will take a trip to Danville or San Ramon next Saturday night at 7 p.m. to face the winner of the No. 4 San Ramon Valley vs No. 5 Monte Vista game that will take place Monday night.
