Vista picks up first win, beats Reed 42-23

Vista del Lago's varsity football team cleaned up their game this week, committing no turnovers and allowing no kick returns for a touchdown, while playing their best game to date in a 42-23 win over Reed of Sparks, Nevada. The Eagles had a big offensive game, as quarterback Jacoby More threw for 354 yards and four touchdowns and the team combined to rush for 117 yards. The defense bent but didn't break, as they gave up a lot of rushing yards, but played good pass defense and held Reed to only seven points in the second half after giving up 16 in the first half. "We talked a lot about how the kids have to be coachable and they guys were exactly that tonight," Vista del Lago coach Mike Struebing said. "It was really fun to watch them go out and win a game. The defense played well. They really locked in and did a good job of tackling, particularly in the second half. It just took a few quarters to figure out Reed's rhythm and tempo and what they were trying to do on offense and once they did, I really thought they narrowed their focus and got after it. "Jacoby, that dude can play some football. You know he's got some great teammates around him that help him out, but yes, he played great tonight." More might need some Ben Gay in the morning, as he threw 53 passes on Friday night, completing 33 of them. He would have completed about five more had his receivers not dropped a handful of passes. The Eagles' scored six touchdowns out of 10 possessions; scoring three touchdowns in each half. Vista's offense was moving the ball best when they connected on short passes. Fourteen of More's completions went for nine yards or less, but it helped the offense to have manageable third downs. More also did a good job of running the ball, as he rushed nine times for 52 yards, 39 of that coming in the second half when many of his runs kept drives alive. Both teams scored on their initial drives, Vista tying the game with a 10-yard pass from More to Luke Roberts (seven catches, 62 yards). Reed then made it 10-7 with a field goal and that's how the first quarter ended. Vista only trailed by three, but they were playing sloppy football with a handful of penalties and Struebing called them out on it. "We had a penalty on a coach and a couple penalties on the kids and I just brought the whole team together and told them that's not the kind of team we're going to be tonight," Struebing said. "We're going to change our focus and make sure we're going to be good teammates and we're going to try to win every rep and forget about what happened before. I thought the guys really responded well to that challenge." Gavin Brainerd scored on a three-yard run to give the Eagles a 14-10 lead with 8:32 to play in the half. Brainerd only rushed for 33 yards on eight carries, but he caught nine passes for 91 yards and helped move the chains. Both teams scored one more touchdown before the half. Reed scored first to retake the lead 16-14, but had the extra-point attempt blocked by Sonny Goodman. Vista's final score of the first half came on a 19-yard catch from Kyron Gulley (four catches, 81 yards) in the back corner of the end zone, where he had to leap high and yet still get a foot down in the end zone and made a great, athletic catch. "He's a dog," More said. "He's insane. He's a sophomore playing varsity ball and he's the most athletic kid I've ever seen." Vista led 21-16 at the half, but opened the third quarter with a touchdown to take a two-score lead, 28-16. More threw a 24-yard touchdown to Cael Rens (eight catches, 80 yards). Oddly, Gulley made all of his catches in the first half, while Rens made all of his catches in the second. Reed scored for the final time with 7:39 to play in the third quarter to narrow the score to 28-23. Vista tacked on two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and made two equally big stops on downs by the defense. More hit Roberts for an 18-yard score before scoring himself on a one-yard run. More finished the game with four touchdown passes and another on a run. "It was great to win," More said. "I'm so proud of our guys for coming together like we did. We were 0-2 and that's not great, but we flushed it, turned the page and got the win and that's all I care about. "Our offense finally started to click. Last week we felt we were a slow start away from putting up 40 points and we did that tonight. It's good to play consistently throughout the whole game and not just in spurts." Vista del Lago has a bye next week before opening up Capital Valley Conference play at Bella Vista on Sept. 25.