El Cajon Valley Braves 0, Santana Sultans 49
The Santana Sultans put on a show Friday night, and not just the homecoming show or the 7-minute fireworks show during halftime.
The varsity football team dominated the Braves from El Cajon Valley on both sides of the football, ending the game at a 49-0 shutout. The Braves’ one-man-show Nathan Mcculough had no room to run Friday night, with the Sultans front seven putting the stop on him early and never letting up. The defense rarely even gave up a first down in this one.
As for the offensive, everyone had a day for the boys in black and purple. The Sultans offense started strong and kept it up for the first half, which was all they needed. The game went to a running clock as early as the first half, and the halftime scoreboard read 42-0 in favor of the home team. The star of the show, Frankie Gutierrez threw for more than 200 passing yards and two touchdowns through the air, and added nearly 40 yards on the ground and another score – all in the first half. Bobby Wallace rushed for more than 130 yards and two rushing touchdowns. The starters got an early rest as Gutierrez didn’t even put his helmet on in the second half. That led way to some quality playing time for backup quarterback Oedewaldt. He wasn’t nearly as effective as Gutierrez, but did show some promise on a few plays. Oedewaldt led the team on just one touchdown drive in the second half, but it didn’t matter because the defense never slowed down, holding on to the shutout.
Santana moves to 6-2 on the year, and remain undefeated in the Grossmont – Valley league, while El Cajon Valley drops to 5-3, and 1-2 in the same league.
Preview: Friday night in Santee, the Santana Sultans face El Cajon Valley’s Braves in an inner-conference matchup.
Both teams are 5-2 on the season, though Santana is undefeated in the Grossmont – Valley league while El Cajon Valley is 1-1 in league play.
In comparison the two teams match up fairly well, but El Cajon Valley is coming into this game the underdog due to league standings and home field advantage. Offensively, the Braves rely heavily on senior full back Nathan Mccullough. Mccullough has already rushed for more than 1,200 yards on the year, recording 15 touchdowns across seven games. He’s averaging a little less than 180 yards per game on the ground. He’s clearly the go-to in this offensive scheme. Considering the poor passing game – both of El Cajon Valley’s quarterbacks on the year are sitting at a combined 7:4 touchdown to interception ratio and have thrown for less than 300 total combined passing yards across seven games, it’s no wonder why they’ve fed Mccullough the ball well over 100 times this season. Mccullough is seeing some help from the opposite side of the ball though, from Junior Faamama Lauifi. Lauifi is averaging more than 10 tackles per game.
Santana has a true stand-out athlete in senior quarterback Frankie Gutierrez. Gutierrez is doing big things for the Sultans this year. Start with his passing numbers, 82 for 127 with a 65% completion percentage. He has passed for more than 1,200 yard, with a 14:5 touchdown to interception ratio. To add to his threat, he’s rushing for nearly 50 yards per game on average and has recorded 13 touchdowns on the ground. That’s 27 touchdowns he’s responsible for across 7 games. Add in the help he’s getting on the ground from junior Bobby Wallace, and the help he’s getting from the Sultan’s receiving corps, and they’ve found themselves a very well-rounded offensive attack. On the defensive end, the speedy junior lineman Devan Henselmeier is making opposing quarterbacks work for it. Henselmeier is averaging nearly one and a half sacks per game. Look for him and Mccullough to meet a few times Friday night.
The Brave’s overwhelming reliance on one player, against a relatively stingy defensive, likely won’t play out well for them Friday. Expect the well-balanced offensive attack of the Sultans to come out on top.
Be sure to tune in to KUSI News at 10:30 p.m. Friday night for highlights of this game and all others, on The Prep Pigskin Report.
