JJ SAYS: Good first week for VVAL football

Vine Valley Athletic League football is a reality and we already know much - some we suspected and some caught us completely off base.

The first is that the terrible traffic conditions are not as bad as predicted, but still range from fair to bad, better than the anticipated bad to terrible.

Aware of the INDY race at Sonoma Raceway, I eschewed Highway 37 and circled to enter American Canyon using Highway 12. From what I heard from those who challenged the raceway crowd, it was a good choice.

The good traffic news is that the big races are finished for the season, so congestion shouldn’t be quite as bad for the rest of the school year. I motored out of Petaluma a little after 4 p.m. and parked in American Canyon’s Walmart-sized parking lot about 15 minutes on the other side of 6. Given a good country music station or CD (I’m a bit old fashioned), I can live with that.

I’ll find out about the trek to Napa this week when I visit Memorial Stadium for Casa’s match against Vintage.

And that brings us to what is probably a more relevant topic of VVAL discussion: Can the Sonoma County Schools - Petaluma, Casa and Sonoma Valley - compete with the Napa schools in football.

Most “experts,” including the sports editor of the Petaluma newspaper, predicted that Sonoma Valley would be overwhelmed by the Napa teams.

So what happened on opening weekend - Sonoma Valley, the second smallest school (by enrollment) in the new league, handed Napa, the biggest school in the league, a quite proper paddling. Casa Grande, a team that hadn’t won all season, took on the best pre-season team in the new league, beating 3-1 Justin-Siena, 36-35.

On the scoreboard, Petaluma was manhandled by previously winless American Canyon, 43-16. American Canyon is a good football team, but the truth is that Petaluma played horribly. The Trojans shot themselves in the foot often enough that they only needed one shoe.

The Trojans will be competitive.

With two winners and a team that, despite the score, has shown it can play with the Napa schools, it appears the rumors of Sonoma County’s demise at the hands of the Napa schools have been greatly exaggerated.

Of course, that still leaves the big Crusher sitting in the living room. The “experts,” the same ones, like me, who anticipated the demolishment of Sonoma Valley last week, have ordained Vintage’s big and experienced Crushers the league champions.

Vintage drew a bye in the first week of play among the seven VVAL schools. In pre-league it is 2-2 against loaded opposition.

We’ll find out how good the Crushers are when they host Casa Grande on Friday evening.

Casa is just 1-4 but has had injury problems and trouble finding an identity in the early going.

But with Matt Herrera and Alex Johnson providing a two-headed running game to complement fearless quarterback Jason Bosarge, the Gauchos have the potential to play with anyone in what is shaping up as an offensive-minded league.

All prejudices considered, the first week of VVAL football was a success.

If Petaluma fans could navigate through the INDYCAR traffic and survive and Sonoma Valley could beat Napa, maybe everything is going to be alright.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)