Title-contender Sultans golden on 50th homecoming
- Updated: October 24, 2015
Photo courtesy TRyan Photography
By Adam Paul
© East County Sports.com
SANTEE (10-24-15) — On a night of pomp and circumstance known as Homecoming, the Santana Sultans welcomed the El Cajon Valley Braves to Santee Community Stadium on Friday (Oct. 23) and came away with the very convincing 49-0 victory.
The night was a beautiful one as the school celebrated its 50th homecoming in which many alumni attended and shared their memories with the current student body. On the field the current version of the football team created their own memories by starting out with a bang as they received the deferred kick from the Braves.
The Sultans who were coming off the bye showed no ill effects as they scored pretty much straight out of the gate.
The Sultans only a couple of minutes into the game roared on their first drive to a four play 65-yard lead capped by a 42-yard scamper up the middle by BOBBY WALLACE to make it 7-0.
The defense, which all week prepared to stop the Braves three-headed offensive attack of TYSON SMITH, CHARLES SMITH and NATHEN McCULLOUGH, did just that as they were able to force the Braves to a four and out. On the second drive Santana gave the Braves a dose of the running attack led by Wallace who was able to take advantage of the holes that the offensive line created as he punched another score as he capped the 6 play 56-yard drive with a 3-yard score to make it 14-0 after TIMMY TISCHER booted the extra point.
Santana knew what they had to do still on defense as El Cajon Valley, despite being down, could come back anytime. However the Sultans bottled up the Braves offense as they stymied them again for another four and out.
The Sultans didn’t take long to go up by three scores as on the very first play FRANKIE GUTIERREZ took the snap and tossed a complete pass to ADAM CHILDRESS for 46-yards and the score to make it 21-0.
Santana gangs up on the El Cajon Valley ball carrier Friday night. / Photo courtesy TRyan Photography
El Cajon Valley, despite getting into Sultan territory all the way to the Sultans 17-yard line thanks to a heavy dose of NATE McCULLOUGH, who would rip off a 30-yard run, the longest of the evening, couldn’t do anything with their 12-play 71-yard drive to end the quarter.
Everyone in the stands on the home side cheered loudly for the Sultans as they came out on fire to start the second quarter. The Sultans would score again, this time just over a minute into the quarter thanks to a 66-yard strike from Gutierrez to Childress that saw him race all the way to end zone. The extra point from Tischer pushed the score to 28-0.
The Sultans would score again on a 1-yard keeper by Gutierrez to make it 35-0, and again a couple of possessions later on a JAMES BRANSON 5-yard run to make it 42-0.
The Braves couldn’t do anything on offense due to a defense that swarmed to the ball and kept things in check.
With the score out of hand, Santana head coach TIM ESTES decided give the starters the rest of the night off. For the night Sultan tailback Bobby Wallace finished with 150 yards on 17 carries and scored twice. Gutierrez finished 7-8 for 159 yards and 2 touchdown strikes and also rushed for another. Not to be outdone, Childress caught 5 balls for 144 yards and 2 scores.
photo courtesy TRyan Photography
The theme for Santana’s homecoming was “Through the Decades” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school. Everyone was all jazzed to see who would be announced as Homecoming King and Queen.
In fact it would be a fairy tale evening as MEOW the king of the Sultans, JAKE “BIG CAT” KITTEN, who had rushed to get off the field as he was anchoring the Sultan offensive line, would be named King and the Queen would be JORDAN TEEGARDIN.
After all the celebration, both teams would retake the field. This time, however the second half would be played under running clock condition. The Sultans defense, as in the first half, were able to bottle up the Braves offense in the second half.
Santana would take over after stopping the Braves on their possession and would capitalize as JOSH OEDEWALDT came in and led the offense on a two play 6-yarder capped by a 5-yard strike to AIDEN RASMUSSON to give the Sultans a 49-0 lead.
Nate McCullough, who came into the game averaging a tad over 175 yards a game, unfortunately couldn’t get going and was held to 57-yards on 13 carries. CHARLES SMITH, who took the majority of the snaps for El Cajon Valley, didn’t fare much better as he finished 4-10 for 19 yards and was sacked 3 times. His brother and counterpart TYSON SMITH would also be sacked 3 times.
“The defense stepped up tonight and contained the running back and their quarterback combo. I was happy how all facets played,” said Estes. “This game meant a lot to the kids as they were fired up for El Cajon as it was homecoming and also because it was a league opponent as well as playoff implications were other motivating factors.”
The stats backed up the night of domination for the Sultans as they more than doubled the total yards of the Braves with 398-54 advantage and also limited them to 7 first downs. With the victory the Sultans pushed their winning streak over the Braves to five games dating back to 2010.
