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PREP FOOTBALL | VINTAGE 41, CASA GRANDE 19
Vintage running back Jeffery Page (44) leaps over offensive lineman Owen Trethewey (57) on a carry against Casa Grande on Friday night at
Memorial Stadium.
Crushers find end zone
again, get payback win
Alvarez keeps
for 202 yards and
three touchdowns
VINCE D’ADAMO
napasports@napanews.com
There is an age-old boxing
analogy that states “styles make
fights.”
Friday night’s Vine Valley Ath-
letic League opener at Memorial
Stadium featured contrasting
approaches to high school foot-
ball, with Casa Grande empha-
sizing a fast-paced passing at-
tack and Vintage eating up the
clock with a tenacious running
game.
On this night, Vintage deliv-
ered an “I owe you” to the Gau-
chos with a ground game that
brought bare and bloody knuck-
les in a 41-19 win, avenging a 46-
44 defeat last season that ended
up being the Crushers’ only
league loss and kept them out of
the playoffs.
Behind the offensive line of
PREP FOOTBALL | AMERICAN CANYON 57, SONOMA VALLEY 7
Battle-hardened Wolves rout Dragons
Defense dominant
wwon homecoming
ANDY WILCOX
awilcox@napanews.com
AMERICAN CANYON —
American Canyon’s defense was
pretty stingy through its first
three games, giving up 17 points
a night, before giving up 38 in a
loss at Livermore a week ago.
That three-point loss seemed a
distant memory in Friday night’s
homecoming game, however, as
the Wolves smothered visiting
Sonoma Valley, 57-7, in a Vine
Valley Athletic League opener at
Wolf Den Stadium.
American Canyon sacked re-
turning Dragons junior quarter-
back Trent Ohman 12 times, one
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SPORTS
Sunday, September 25, 2022  |  napavalleyregister.com  |  SECTION B
Vintage’s Grant Menzel, far right, gets blocked while teammate Alexis
Castillo sacks Casa Grande quarterback Wyatt Abramson on Friday
night at Memorial Stadium.
Lorenzo Webb, Steven Downing,
Owen Trethewey, Drake Samp-
ton, Jack Davidson and tight end
Matt Ackman, along with Aiden
Riddleberger and Matthew Ste-
phenson, the Crushers amassed
433 yards of total offense on 53
plays — all rushing.
Senior quarterback Elias Alva-
rez tallied 202 yards on 15 carries
with touchdown runs of 57, 24,
and 54 yards, though his yardage
was deflated considering his first
of which resulted in a fumble
returned by Adbul Cates for a
40-yard touchdown that closed
the scoring late in the third quar-
ter. The game went to a running
clock in the fourth.
“They go,” Wolves head coach
John Montante said of pass rush-
ers such as David Garcia, James
Aken, Nicholas Mitchell, Dalano
Murray, Isaiah Vaughan and
Phoenix Perry. “They’re little
guys, but they have motors and
they’re strong.”
The Wolves (3-2) held Sonoma
Valley (3-2) to 17 net yards of
total offense —a net zero yards
rushing, thanks to the sacks, and
17 passing.
“They’re learning how to put it American Canyon’s Ojani Castillo sprints toward the end zone during
their homecoming game against Sonoma Valley in American Canyon on
Please see WOLVES, Page B6 Friday. American Canyon won 57-7.
rush went for minus-13 yards be-
cause of an errant shotgun snap.
“On the first touchdown, I
missed the hole,” Alvarez said.
“Then I thought I had to make
up for it. One stiff-arm later, the
lane opens up and I see green
grass. My eyes lit up. The other
two touchdowns, I just made a
move and ran as fast as I could.”
Head coach Dylan Leach was
effusive in his praise for Alvarez
running the Crushers’ triple-op-
SUBMITTED PHOTOS‌
tion offense, as the Crushers
scored as many points as Her-
itage had shut them out by the
week before.
“When he makes great deci-
sions in this offense, that’s how
we will roll,” Leach said. “You
guys know as well as I do that
the triple-option goes as the
quarterback goes. As long as he
makes the right decision, we’ll
be just fine.”
Jeffery Page added 98 yards
on 19 carries, including a 2-yard
touchdown run, while Riley An-
derson’s lone carry went for a
38-yard touchdown.
“They get tired eventually,” Al-
varez said of defenders. “It’s true
with any team. If you hit them
hard over and over again, they
will get tired. It’s the way football
is. I give it to our coaches. They
instill toughness in us and we be-
lieve no one will be tougher than
us. They tell us to be the hammer
and not the nail.”
Casa Grande’s final statistics
Please see CRUSHERS, Page B6
NICK OTTO, REGISTER‌
Sunday, September 25, 2022 | B1
Federally insured by NCUA.
MLB
A’s rout
Mets
and ace
deGrom
Cy Young winner
worst since 2019
JANIE MCCAULEY
Associated Press
OAKLAND — Jacob deGrom got
hit around and lasted a season-low
four innings as the New York Mets
lost 10-4 to the Oakland Athlet-
ics on Saturday, missing a chance
to create some distance in the NL
East race.
DeGrom (5-3) was tagged for
five runs and four walks — the
worst start for the two-time NL Cy
Young Award winner since 2019.
The right-hander had never faced
the A’s before.
In his last three starts, deGrom
has allowed 11 earned runs in 15
innings. The four walks doubled
his previous season total.
The Mets lost for only the sec-
ond time in their last nine games.
They began the day with a 2 1/2-
game division lead over reigning
World Series champion Atlanta.
Mark Vientos hit a tying solo
home run in the Mets second to
make it 4-all. Seth Brown’s lead-
off homer in the third put the A’s
ahead for good.
Pete Alonso hit a two-run ho-
mer, his 38th, in the Mets. Staked
to an immediate 3-0 lead, deGrom
gave up four runs in the bottom
half.
DeGrom had struck out eight or
more with either one or no walks
in eight straight starts, the longest
such streak in major league his-
tory, but fanned a season-low five.
His last time out against Pitts-
burgh, deGrom became the only
pitcher to strike out at least 13 bat-
ters with no walks in five innings.
Please see ATHLETICS, Page B5
GOLF
Spieth, Thomas
keep US
out front at
Presidents Cup
DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The
Americans have a juggernaut in
Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas
that moved them closer to an-
other victory in the Presidents
Cup on Saturday.
The International team has a
spark plug in 20-year-old Tom
Kim, who delivered the emotion
and big putts that made it clear
the Americans will have to work
for it.
The day started with the
Americans having a mathemat-
ical chance to clinch the cup. It
ended with them holding an 11-7
lead, with 12 singles matches left
on Sunday.
Spieth and Thomas became
only the second U.S. partnership
to win all four team matches in
the Presidents Cup, handily win-
ning their foursomes match in
the morning and their fourballs
Please see PRESIDENTS CUP, Page B5