Vanden falls to Cardinal Newman on late score
Santa Rosa school downs Vikings in non-conference matchup
One disadvantage of this COVID-shortened high school football spring season is the limited time coaches had to prepare their players in all facets of the game.
That hurt the Vanden High football team in its home nonconference game against visiting Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa on Friday night.
The Vikings had just evened the score at 21-21 on sophomore quarterback Tre Dimes’ third touchdown of the night with just two minutes left in the game. But the visitors took the ensuing kickoff all the way to the house to give Cardinal Newman a 2821 victory.
The Cardinals, a perennial powerhouse ranked 29th in the state, won the 2019 Division 3-AA State Championship.
“It was a good challenge for us,” said Vanden head coach Sean Murphy. “It lets us know where we need to go as a program if we are going to achieve the goals that we want to achieve in the long run.”
Vanden had a chance to score on its opening drive, but the Cardinals blocked a Viking field goal attempt. Vanden stopped Cardinal Newman’s drive and got the ball back, capitalizing with a 15-yard touchdown strike from Dimes to Jamai East. The extra point made it 7-0 Vanden.
The first half was a back-and-forth defensive struggle, with Cardinal Newman tying the game at 7-all late in the first half.
The visitors scored twice in the third quarter. But Dimes connected with Michael Belk for two TDS, the sconed one knotting the score at 21 before the meltdown on the ensuing kickoff gave Cardinal Newman the win.
“We had some glaring breakdowns on special teams,” said Murphy. “So that’s on us as coaches and we’ll get it fixed.”
But overall Murphy was pleased with his team’s play.
“Our guys fought for all 48 minutes,” he said. “Mostly right now it’s mental errors. It’s not physical errors that are the problem. When you play a team like Cardinal Newman, when you make mental errors, they are going to make you pay. I felt like we played longer stretches of mental-error-free football than we did in the first game (a win over Will C. Wood).”
He praised Belk, who also plays defensive back, for a great game on both sides of the ball. Murphy also singled out the fine play of linebacker Kaden McLeod and Dimes.
“Cardinal Newman had some really good blitz schemes, and he (Dimes) dealt well with the pressure they were throwing up there, which bodes well for the future,” said Murphy.
And Dimes was helped by his linemen.
“Our offensive line had some really good moments, really good pass protection,” said Murphy, who was happy with the team effort as a whole.
“I was happy with the energy level, the way that we fought back when we faced adversity,” he said. “I felt like we made some good adjustments. The kids were able to execute when we made those adjustments.”
Murphy thinks this game was good preparation for what promises to be a tough battle against Vacaville High next week.
“To face an opponent that is going to give us some adversity and make our young men face tough situations was good going into a big league game,” said the coach.