NAPA, CA - It had been awhile since the Napa High football team played at home -- since September 22nd in fact -- and in their return home the Indians beat the Armijo Indians big, by a score of 49-14.
The win is Napa coach Jesus Martinez’s first Monticello Empire League win.
“Feels like any other win, you know not anything different,” Martinez explained afterwards. “It’s a good feeling when you can come off the football field with a victory.”
Napa (3-5 overall, 1-2 MEL) put the pummeling on right away. In the first quarter they raced out to a 22-0 advantage. In the first Caden Cortese had touchdown rushes of 15, and 12 yards apiece, and Dawson Trent scored from a yard out.
In the second it was more of the same, except Armijo (3-5, 0-3 MEL) scored their only two scores of the game. Johnny Torres scored at the 11:38 mark from 14 yards away, while Michael Blatteis also added a nine-yard score. Armijo found paydirt with 9:33 till half on a play where Tariq Eid connected with Sam King on a 39-yard pass, and on an Eid 69-yard rush with 42 ticks till half.
“He’s been working hard, he’s been battling a couple things, injuries from the beginning of the season,” Martinez said of the junior WR/RB/DB. “It was just awesome, you know, he really ran hard, and showed that he wanted that touchdown, and he got it.”
There was one lone score in the second half, and it was by Napa on a Isaiah Newton three-yard rush with 7:06 in the third.
Napa was able to get their backups in during the second half, and Martinez likes that he was able to do that.
“Especially going into next week Big Game you know Vintage is a good football team, and we wanna make sure that we got everybody in today, so come next week you know we kinda knew what we had,” Martinez said of the importance of the getting the backups in.
Napa has had offensive woes all season, and this is a game is one they can build on heading into next week..
“Absolutely, you know I think today we went back to the basics, we focussed on the fundamentals, and it showed, it got a little sloppy at the end, but I think we did a good job,” Martinez added on the offensive explosion.
Next Friday in the MEL it’s rivalry week, as Napa will visit crosstown rival Vintage in Big Game XLVI (46) at Napa Memorial Stadium. Gates will open at 4 P. M., JV will kickoff at 5:15, and Varsity at 7:30. Armijo will host Rodriguez also next Friday at 7:30.
