Menezes has huge night as Vista del Lago runs past El Camino
A dominant first-half showing on the ground set the tone for Vista del Lago High School’s opening game of the spring season as it trounced host El Camino 63-6 Friday night.
The game started perfectly for the Eagles as they recovered the opening kickoff, allowing senior running back and reigning Capital Athletic League MVP Ethan Menezes to break open on a 40-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage in a battle of teams with Eagles mascots.
Menezes rushed for 224 yards, 186 in the first half, and added three more touchdowns and a couple of two-point conversions in carrying over his 1,800-yard season from 2019. The senior running back said his team waited too long for a season to happen to not go out there and play as hard as they did. He paid credit to his offensive line for creating holes to run through.
“I’ve known these guys forever,” Menezes said. “Kellan (Murphy), Noah (Case), Blake (Harville), Brian (Haena), Jackson (Burgess). They’re all great guys. You gotta stay hungry and you gotta want it more than anyone else.”
Murphy said that one of the keys for creating such holes were fundamentals and physicality.
“It’s a lot of technique, a lot of just grit and being tough,” he said. “Those guys weren’t terrible. They played some good ball. We were just tough,” Murphy said.
El Camino scored a touchdown on its second drive of the game after Luke Coleman connected with junior Jemal Francois Jr. from seven yards out to make it 14-6. El Camino’s offensive woes continued after starting running back Gesyrus Scott went down with an injury in the second quarter. Apart from some flashes from Francois, the team was unable to do much with the ball.
Vista coach Mike Struebing said it was nice to come out on top while visiting a place he coached at previously.
“I coached two years here a long time ago, so it’s kind of fun to come back and see the place,” he said. “I’ve got a ton of respect for (El Camino coach) J.P. (Dolliver) and what he’s doing with the program. Obviously, being on the right side of the win tonight makes you feel good.”
Any chance of a second-half comeback was immediately nipped when Vista senior Erik Johnson returned the kickoff 80 yards for a 36-point lead. Jakob Hollingshaus, Brycen Santero and Tyler Peterson all got into the end zone in the second half as the Eagles of Folsom rolled.
Even with a shortened season and no playoffs, Struebing doesn’t think it impacted the intensity or mentality of the players.
“If that were the case, I would have expected us to have lost players or have guys say, ‘Hey, we don’t want to come out and play.’ We’ve got all of our guys and they’re all here,” Struebing said. “They’re all committed. They’ve all been practicing. They just wanted the opportunity to come out and do it and so I’m grateful that we have that opportunity.”
With a game next week against Del Campo, Murphy the lineman said the team is already focused on getting themselves to be better than this performance.
“We always got to get better,” he said. “There’s so many things that I know that I did wrong tonight that I could have done better. And I’m just going to be working on those in practice all week, just grinding. I know we got Del Campo next week and I’m excited to play them. So let’s just keep going on the grind. Don’t let up.”
Friday scoreboard
Folsom 35, Granite Bay 25
Rocklin 29, Del Oro 21
Union Mine 22, Liberty Ranch 21
Bear River 34, Foresthill 8
Inderkum 42, Bella Vista 9
Natomas 14, Cordova 12
Placer 34, Nevada Union 27
Del Campo 50, Foothill 12
Christian Brothers 42, Sac High 0
Vista del Lago 63, El Camino 6
Ponderosa 56, Rio Linda 0
Vacaville 28, Davis 21
Colfax 21, Center 7
River Valley 26, River City 18
Orestimba 51, Denair 6
Central Catholic 28, Bellarmine 21
Dos Palos 29, Golden Valley 27
Lincoln-Stockon 52, Tracy 27
Sierra 56, Weston Ranch 7
Sonora 33, Gustine 7
Pacheco 16, Los Banos 13
Hughson 38, Waterford 12
Stagg 43, McNair 14
Gregori 54, Modesto 20
Manteca 44, Kimball 38
Turlock 56, Downey 24