Vista del Lago seniors revel in upset win over No. 6 Inderkum
As an entertaining battle between Vista del Lago and Inderkum wound down Friday night in the Folsom hills, the 1995 Montell Jordan song, “This Is How We Do It” blared over the loudspeakers, and why not?
The 15th-ranked Eagles scratched out a 40-31 win against a team with national recruits dotting the roster with a go-for-the-throat mentality, winning the bout and then dancing to their own beat on Senior Night with an inspired effort.
Vista went for two on point-after touchdowns. The Eagles kicked onside kicks, went for it on fourth down, threw long, ran with power between the tackles, and then made stops when they absolutely had to in posting a fourth-quarter shutout.
The formula worked. It was Vista’s home opener, played out on as nice of field and venue as there is in the Sac-Joaquin Section. Before the fun kicked off, Vista senior players were escorted by their parents onto the field, the moms carrying white roses.
Why do this now? Because the next game or the rest of the season is always in doubt during these wildly unpredictable COVID-19 times, with cancellations the frustrating norm due to positive COVID-19 tests. Vista was scheduled to play Del Campo, but that became a scratch Wednesday, leaving Eagles coach Mike Struebing to scramble for a game in short order. He found Inderkum and the game was even better than advertised.
Aydan Edwards passed for 266 yards and four touchdowns and ran for one, and workhorse back Ethan Menezes rushed for a 5-yard touchdown, caught a 48-yard nifty scoring pass from Edwards and salted the game away with a breakaway run that nearly resulted in a late touchdown.
Edwards took a knee at the Inderkum 5 to run it out, and the cheer was on as players raced around with large mug-shot photos of themselves that parents hoisted in the stands. A group of determined Eagles seniors, some with light recruiting interest from smaller colleges, vowed to finish this spring with emphasis. There’s an old saying in prep sports that nothing beats varsity starting experience. That’s Vista to the core.
Coach Mike Struebing called it, “a gritty effort by a tremendous group of guys who busted their tails to get here during so much uncertainty.”
It took all manner of effort for players to even pull their shoulder pads off, they were that gassed in going against the most talented roster they will face this season.
“I was dead tired out there,” Menezes said, managing the strength to ham it up with his fellow seniors a moment later. “We worked 12 to 15 months for a chance to play, and it was emotional. We had two days to prep for a really good team. It was a great game.”
It was also a rousing statement reminder that Vista del Lago is in fact the real deal. The players know this, the coaches, too.
So does Inderkum. Vista has been a playoff regular over the years, and it anticipated a section-championship run in the fall of 2020 before the pandemic took over. There are no playoffs this spring season, but there will be memories like this. Vista opened the season with a 63-6 rout of El Camino as Menezes rushed for 245 yards and four touchdowns.
Edwards, the poised quarterback with the soft deep ball touch, on Friday raved about his offensive line of Jackson Burgess, Noah Case, Ryan Goff, Blake Harville and Kellen Murphy, and his receivers.
In the third quarter, Edwards hit Erik Johnson for a 45-yard touchdown for a 28-19 lead, then found Nathan Zan for a 42-yard scoring strike to make it 34-19. For Inderkum, a 5-yard touchdown run by Remel Spivey and an 81-yard strike from freshman Maealivaka Smith to national recruit receiver Carlos Wilson cut the lead to 34-31 with 2:11 in the quarter.
Then good fortune: Edwards fired a pass to Jakob Vercer over the middle that he caught, then lost for a second, then retrieved, and off he went to cap a 65-yard play to account for the final scoring with 1:12 left in the third. From there, Vista del Lago held firm on defense for one of the biggest wins since the school opened in 2007.
“Great win,” Edwards said. “We have a lot of experience, and we’ve heard it over the years, that we can’t beat really good teams, the Division I teams. We can play. We beat a great team tonight.”
He paused and added, “We didn’t think we’d have a season. We played kickball out here when it was dark and there was no hope. That’s why this win means so much for us seniors.”
Weeks before Vista learned that there would in fact be a spring season, Struebing had his players sit in the home bleachers.
“Right there in those blue seats,” the coach said, pointing to the seats where parents sat for the game. “I told all the baseball players they should focus on baseball, and the lacrosse players. We really didn’t think we’d have a shot to play football, but here we are. It’s a wonderful group, a talented group. We thought we’d make a real playoff run in the fall, but tonight speaks of how good we could be and are.”
Vista del Lago is scheduled to play at Ponderosa on April 2 and then will close out with Capital Athletic League members Christian Brothers and Sacramento.
Inderkum (1-2) lost its opener to Bay Area powerhouse and 2019 CIF State Division 2-AA champion Clayton Valley Charter of Concord 20-15 and finishes with Capital Valley Conference foes Woodcreek, Antelope and Yuba City.
Friday night scores
Jesuit 34, Christian Brothers 28
Folsom 45, Del Oro 6
Pleasant Grove 24, Davis 21
Yuba City 40, River Valley 6
Vista del Lago 40, Inderkum 31
Pleasant Grove 24, Davis 21
El Dorado 17, Liberty Ranch 7
Rocklin 38, Oak Ridge 13
Casa Roble 42, Center 22
Colfax 21, Truckee 7
Bear River 28, Western Sierra 0
River City 27, Winters 13
St. Mary’s 54, Tracy 14
El Dorado 17, Liberty Ranch 7
Lincoln (S) 71, Tokay 6
Lodi 62, West 0
Enochs 20, Downey 14
Manteca 47, Ripon 28
Weston Ranch 26, Denair 6
Calaveras 27, Summerville 8
Hilmar 31, Buhach Colony 27
Central Valley 13, Los Banos 12
Atwater 40, Golden Valley 7
Kimball 32, East Union 29
Pitman 48, Gregori 20
Hughson 48, El Capitan 8
Le Grand 13, Livingston 7
Central Catholic 14, Merced 13
This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 5:59 AM.