Vista earns big win over Falcons, 52-34

Prior to last Friday's football game, Vista del Lago had beaten Christian Brothers three times in their short history: never by more than 10 points. Friday night the Eagles outscored the Falcons by 18 points, 52-34, in a game where both teams had trouble stopping the other. The 18-point victory was a comfortable one, as the game was really no longer in doubt after the Eagles took a 32-14 lead midway through the third quarter. "It's always nice to win and to beat Christian Brothers," Vista coach Mike Struebing said. "They're always competitive and well-coached, so it's nice to be on the right side of the score against them. We played pretty well. I thought our line play as a whole was really good. We made some miscues on the defensive line; however, that we need to clean up for next week." Ethan Menezes scored four rushing touchdowns in the second half to help the Eagles pull away from the Falcons and secure the win. Erik Johnson and Tyler Peterson also had touchdown runs, while Aydan Edwards threw touchdown passes to Carson King and Brycen Santero for the other two scores. The Eagles scored on eight of their 11 possessions, as they punted three times. Defensively, Vista allowed a lot of points and five Falcon touchdowns, but made a couple big defensive plays that made a difference. On the Falcons' first possession of the game, Gabriel Babiano, filling in for starting cornerback Jacob Vencer, who was out injured, made a diving solo tackle on a third-down pass at the one-yard line. When the receiver caught the ball at the five, he looked like he'd surely score, but Babiano, who later had an interception, came out of nowhere and made the diving stop. On the next play, fourth down from the one-yard line, linebacker Nate Zan slipped past the Falcon line unblocked and made the stop on fourth down to give the Eagles the ball. In the third quarter with Vista leading 26-14, the Falcons decided to go for it on fourth and three from their own 23-yard line. On the screen pass, Weston Ward and Aidan Santos combined to make the tackle short of the marker to give the Eagles the ball. The stop led to a five-yard touchdown run by Menezes and gave the Eagles some much-needed breathing room, now leading 32-14 midway through the third quarter. "We were kind of joking as a coaching staff watching the film that we were better on fourth-and-one than we were at third-and-14," Struebing said. "We did find a way to get some stops when we needed them. Gabe made a really nice tackle on that first drive, and I remember Jack Goyeau also knifing in A-gap and locked up the quarterback's legs for another key stop." The undefeated Eagles, now 4-0, have one more game on the schedule, but it's not Sac High, who had a positive COVID test. The Eagles are hoping to play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Cosumnes Oaks. The Wolfpack have only played two games this season; earning a win over Davis while losing to Monterey Trail.