San Benito appears to be in similar position as last year, but
Balers may be better off than 2009 counterparts
It appears as if the San Benito Haybalers are in the exact same
position as they were last year
— entering the postseason coming off a loss, opening the Central
Coast Section Division I Championships against a lower-seeded
Independence team, and playing with question marks at the
quarterback position.
San Benito appears to be in similar position as last year, but Balers may be better off than 2009 counterparts
It appears as if the San Benito Haybalers are in the exact same position as they were last year — entering the postseason coming off a loss, opening the Central Coast Section Division I Championships against a lower-seeded Independence team, and playing with question marks at the quarterback position.
On the surface, it’s really 2009 all over again.
But the similarities aren’t as striking for head coach Chris Cameron, who feels last week’s last-minute loss to Palma wasn’t nearly as emotionally draining as last year’s back-to-back losses to both Palma and Gilroy to close out the regular season.
Said Cameron of last week’s Palma match, “The feeling was really good. They were able to move the ball and be ahead of a team that hasn’t been behind much this season.
“Our kids battled throughout the game.”
And they did so with their third-string quarterback for much of the second half.
Once Michael Bocksnick went down with an injury, Garrett Avina came in behind center and sparked a pair of touchdown drives for the Balers, who although trailed 17-6 at halftime, led 21-17 with 3:29 remaining.
The visiting Chieftains managed to swipe certain victory in the final minute en route to a 24-21 win, however, a heartbreaking loss for the Balers.
“We didn’t do too bad (on Monday at practice),” senior fullback Cody Hendricks said. “We did a lot better than I thought we were going to do, especially after coming off a loss to Palma.”
Last year, the Balers were coming off two emotional losses against their two biggest rivals, Palma and Gilroy — the team’s only losses of the regular season. Furthermore, it lost starting quarterback Trevor Fabing — the team’s emotional leader on offense — in the fourth quarter of the regular-season finale against Gilroy, a team they were expected to beat.
Put it all together, and San Benito came out flat last year against Independence in the first half — the cold and wet conditions not helping one bit. It took a turnaround effort in the second half for the Balers to emerge with a 13-9 victory over the visiting 76ers.
“Last year, it was like, ‘blah.’ We weren’t riding a good wave and you could feel it,” Cameron said of the week leading up to the playoffs. “Everything was different.”
The team’s quarterback position appears to be in better sorts entering the postseason than it was a year ago, too. Although Cameron had not named a starter for Friday night’s contest against visiting Independence, the team was practicing with three options on Tuesday, including Avina, freshman call-up Josh George and starting senior Tyler Decker, who was sidelined with an injury during last week’s game against Palma.
“Decker’s going to get better, but we’ll find out by the end of the week,” Cameron said Tuesday. Decker was limited in practice early in the week.
“We have more options, but you don’t want to be shorthanded,” Cameron said. “You want to have your guys. If Tyler is playing, we’re pretty much full-go. He’s played pretty much every game this year, and he’s our senior quarterback.”
“But on Friday night,” Cameron later added, “I don’t know whose gonna have their hands underneath center.”
The questions at signal-caller will likely not change what the Balers try to do offensively. Last week, with its third-stringer behind center, San Benito ran its usual brand of offense, with Avina pitching left and right out of the triple-option set.
“He can run the option and he can read it extemely well,” Cameron said last Friday of Avina, who although quarterbacked both the freshmen and junior varsity teams, has played free safety for much of the year.
Aside from the personnel, not much has changed on Independence’s side of the football. The 76ers went 8-2 overall this season and 6-1 in league as champions of the Santa Teresa Division, having won their last four games against Willow Glen, Gunderson, Branham and Evergreen Valley by a combined 181-73.
The Sixers’ last loss was on Oct. 15 against Lincoln, a team that is much improved from last year when the Balers routed them 55-0 in San Jose.
Running similar formations like last year — everything from a tight set to a spread out shotgun — the Sixers possess plenty of speed (“Lots of speed,” Cameron said) and strong special teams (“They return kicks really well, too,” he added).
“They have some pretty big guys on defense, a lot of two-way players,” said Hendricks, who scored the go-ahead touchdown against Independence last year. “I think we’re gonna do a really good job against them offensively, and defensively I think we can stop them.”
Such was the case last year. San Benito limited the Sixers to 174 yards of total offense, 65 of which came on Independence’s only touchdown early in the first quarter.
The San Jose school has averaged 37 points per game this year, though. But limiting the Sixers on offense would be a telling sign — the only team to shut out Independence this year is Piedmont Hills, the top-seeded team in the Division I bracket.
“It doesn’t seem like anyone wants to stop playing yet,” said Cameron, who noted how important the emotional aspect of the game is, especially this late in the season.
“It’s been a long stretch of time, since August,” he said. “Making it here, you obviously have to play well. But you’ve got to want to compete. You want to play hard and you want to compete, and sometimes that’s why it works.
“If you want to come out and be excited about it, it’s that much easier.”
