Windsor High School’s football team secured its first league win of the season in overtime Friday night, beating Vintage 17-10 on a game-sealing interception by Alonzo Leon.

The victory at home is the Jaguars’ first in the Redwood Empire Conference Adobe division this year, following losses to Cardinal Newman and San Marin.

Windsor is now 6-2 overall and 1-2 in the REC-Adobe.

“This team has fought tooth and nail all year long. We’ve had seven season-ending injuries, mostly all seniors that were starters, and these guys have never batted an eye and they’ve just kept fighting,” Windsor head coach Dean Sexton said of his players. “We had two tough losses the last couple weeks and games that we were right there and we just asked them to keep fighting and keep showing up and playing for 48 minutes — and tonight, we had to play for a little bit longer than 48 minutes.”

The Jaguars led until the Crushers tied the game at 10 with 2:40 left in the fourth quarter.

Windsor was forced to punt on the next drive, but Vintage threw an interception that was caught by Jaguars defender Fernando Lopez.

Windsor had to punt again and Vintage chose to kneel out the final seconds of regulation.

The Jaguars started the overtime period on offense and quarterback Carter Vose III scored what would be the game-winning touchdown, running it in from 12 yards out.

“That run Carter had in overtime was a great decision by him because it was not a designed run play. It was a pass play called, and he saw that everything was covered and he tucked and ran and he did it all on his own,” Sexton said. “He figures out a way to get it done for us, and that play he made there at the end was just a really special football play that not a lot of kids can make.”

Vintage’s one play on offense in the extra period became the game-ending interception by Leon.

“He made a huge play and a couple other seniors made some big-time plays,” Sexton said. “Tonight was senior night, and I felt like we went out and played for the seniors and our seniors made big-time plays and that was a huge way to end the game.”

Sexton said getting the first league win was huge, especially in the competitive REC-Adobe.

“Every week is a fight,” Sexton said. “To win a game in this league is a really hard thing to do, as you can see tonight — taking it to overtime and taking a great Vintage team right down there to the wire and they kept fighting.”

Vintage finished with 234 total yards on offense, 188 rushing and 46 passing.

“I thought our defense played lights out against a team like that that’s physical and run heavy and they do a great job over there,” Sexton said. “I’ve just got to give my defensive coordinator, Dan Tynan, a ton of credit. He’s done a remarkable job. He drives from Fairfield every day to be here, an hour and a half each way, and he’s really laid it on the line for these young men.”

Vintage head coach Dylan Leach called the game gutsy and gritty.

“We knew that we had a tough foe over there. They’ve been tough for many years,” Leach said. “They’re big, strong and fast and they just hung on to win it out in the end.”

Leach was not pleased with his offense’s performance Friday night.

“We’ve got to find a way to get the fourth and shorts, to hunker down and get yards in tough situations. We ran it efficiently to keep their offense off the field, which was kind of the goal, but when you’re only putting up 10 points … that’s why I told our defense, if you hold a team to 10, then we should be winning those games. So that’s on the offense,” Leach said.

On defense, the Crushers held their own, their coach said.

“We gave up some yards here and there, but when you’re giving up 10 points in this type of league, you should be rewarded,” Leach said. “They played tough, and the offense just didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.”

He said the 31-0 loss to Marin Catholic a week prior could have deflated his team.

“We didn’t really respond how I thought we were going to respond,” Leach said. “We just played a really tough team and I think we were underdogs coming in and we took them to this spot. So there’s a lot to be happy about, but you’re never happy with the loss.”

Windsor finished with 134 passing yards and 63 rushing yards. Vose had one passing touchdown to Riley Nowlin for Windsor’s first TD of the game.

The Jaguars’ defense finished with three interceptions. Defensive end Semere Berhe stopped Vintage’s first drive with a pick, in addition to the late-game takeaways by Lopez and Leon.

Getting a league win was a step in the right direction, Leon said afterward.

“We’ve got a lot of starters missing, so we tried to fight and it was a dogfight,” Leon said. “These boys put up a good fight.”