Herd Steamrolls Vintage; MT Squeaks By Cosumnes Oaks

Vintage High School’s first visit to the Sac-Joaquin Section football playoffs in seven years was, well, one that they’d all like to forget.

Vintage looked helpless and completely unable to stop the talented Thundering Herd squad, losing 69-7 to a team that has made it all the way to the Section’s Division II championship game the past two seasons.

The number-two seeded Thundering Herd poured it on the Crushers quickly. Running back Eltoro Allen sprinted 75 yards for a touchdown on just the third play of the game and the rout was on.

 ---------- Playoff Scores ---------

Monterey Trail 29, Cosumnes Oaks 28

Grant 42, Patterson 23

Inderkum 60, Valley 8

Bradshaw Christian 47, Gustine 6

Saturday, 1 p.m. Franklin at Modesto

Elk Grove led 34-0 after just one period and had a 62-7 halftime lead.

Herd defenders were in the face of Crusher quarterback Jared Horn throughout the night, forcing him to throw four interceptions, two that were returned by Manny Scott-Anderson for TD’s.
Scott-Anderson also blocked a punt that gave the Herd a short field in the first quarter. Plus, he rushed for two more touchdowns.

Prior to the late second quarter drive that led to Vintage’s only score of the game, Horn was just four-of-19 passing for 69 yards. He finished six-of-24 for 91 yards and a 17-yard TD pass to Connor Bates.

The Crushers’ rushing attack didn’t do much either. They had only 75 yards on 25 attempts.

Meanwhile, Elk Grove’s runners sprinted freely through the Vintage defenders. Allen finished with a whopping 205 yards rushing on only five carries. When the referees started the running clock at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Herd had amassed 403 yards on the ground on 35 carries and 590 yards of total offense.

Herd head coach Chris Nixon claimed he had no idea his squad would start the game is such a big way.

"I came into this game just like any other playoff game, with a few jitters," Nixon said. "You know you are going to face a few good teams. They wouldn't be in the playoffs if they weren't. We had some things go our way in that first quarter."

The Herd will now take on Will C. Wood in the second round of the Division II playoffs next Friday. Wood came from behind to defeat Metro Conference champion Burbank, 34-33, Friday, scoring a TD with 42 seconds left in the game and converting a two-point play to win the contest.

In a bit of an interesting sidebar, Wood is coached by Carlos Meraz, the man who was hired to replace Dave Hoskins as Elk Grove's head coach in 2008. Meraz was relieved of his job as the Herd's football coach a few weeks later when it was discovered that a EGUSD regulation was broken and an in-district employee wasn't first offered the position.

That's when Nixon was hired as the Herd's football coach, a position he's held since.

"It's the kids who play on the field and these kids were in fourth or fifth grade when that happened, so I don't think it's much of a story," Nixon said. "He's done a good job over there and has put together a couple playoff teams."

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Scoring By Quarters:                       1          2         3         4         Total

Vintage                                             0         7         0         0         7

Elk Grove                                         34       28       0         7         69

Scoring Summary:
1st Quarter -
10:40 EG - Eltoro Allen 75 yd. run (Hunter Pentracek kick)
9:14   EG - Ryan Robards 20 yd pass from Tyler VanderWaal (Pentracek kick)
7:10   EG - Manny Scott-Anderson 27 yd run (Pentracek kick)
3:28   EG - Allen 59 yd run (Pentracek kick)
3:21   EG - Scott-Anderson 4 yd interception return (kick failed)
2nd Quarter -
11:56  EG - Spencer Sheff 3 yd run (Pentracek kick)
8:23   EG - Scott-Anderson 15 yd run (Pentracek kick)
2:14   EG - Sheff 1 yd run (Pentracek kick)
2:01   EG - Scott-Anderson 38 yd interception return (Pentracek kick)
:49     VI - Connor Bates 17 yd pass from Jared Horn (Vargas kick)
4th Quarter -
8:04   EG - Josh Smith 25 yd run (Pentracek kick)

Game Stats (through 3 quarters, running clock in fourth quarter)

                                                            Vintage                     Elk Grove

First Downs                                     12                               17

Rushes – Yards                               25-75                         35-403

Passing Yards                                  91                               187

Passes Att-Comp-Int                      24-6-4                       11-7-0

Punt Returns – Yards                   0-0                             1-6

Kickoff Returns – Yards               5-91                           1-16

Interception Returns – Yards    0-0                             4-54

Punts (Number-Avg.)                  5-27.4                         0-0

Fumbles-Lost                                   0-0                             1-1

Penalties-Yards                              6-49                           12-170

Possession Time                              16:39                         16:49

Sacks by: Number-Yards               0-0                             1-9

Rushing – Vintage – Caleb Gibb 7-39; Jeremy Costa 1-15; Triston Schaumke 4-9; Kevin Oram 88-8; Dylan Kaye 1-6; Cole Ochoa 1-5; Marc Galles 2-2; Jared Horn 1-(-9).  Elk Grove – Eltoro Allen 5-205; Manny Scott-Anderson 5-66; Arsenio Ayala 8-64; Spencer Sheff 8-26; Josh Smith 1-25; Kheyvon Hughes 1-11; Julius Fullah 2-6;

Passing – Vintage- Jared Horn 6-24-4-91. Elk Grove – Tyler VanderWaal 5-6-0-145; Jonathan Ochoa 2-5-0-42.

Receiving – Vintage – Connor Bates 2-31; Eric Lum 2-20; Justin Harp-Ellis 1-34; Cole Ochoa 1-6; Elk Grove – Ryan Robards 3-115; Aidan Martinez 2-42; Julius Fullah 1-23; Spencer Sheff 1-7.