The San Benito High football team improved to 6-0 on the season
when it defeated the host Everett Alvarez Eagles 44-0 Friday night
in Salinas.
SALINAS
Everett Alvarez High may have played its first-ever game under the lights on Friday night, but San Benito played lights-out for the second straight week — another shutout victory that was practically over at halftime.
Behind quarterback Trevor Fabing’s two touchdowns — one on the ground and one in the air — and San Benito’s still-sturdy defense that forced three turnovers, pocketed a touchdown and sacked Eagles quarterback Miles Cunha six times for -39 yards, the Balers jumped out to an easy 31-0 lead at the break en route to its second consecutive 44-0 victory in Tri-County Athletic League play Friday night in Salinas.
The convincing win followed suit with San Benito’s completely dominating season to date. Improving to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the TCAL, the Balers eclipsed the 200-point mark for the year on Friday night, while the defense’s third shutout of the season kept its points-allowed total to just 20.
But while San Benito appeared to be clicking on all cylinders Friday night at Alvarez — the Balers have now outscored its six opponents by a 216-20 margin — head coach Chris Cameron couldn’t help but highlight some of the faults that may be exposed in the weeks to come, as the team’s schedule is expected to only increase in difficulty.
“We beat a team that we’re a lot better than, but there were a lot of things we didn’t do right tonight,” Cameron said. “For example in the first half, we must have run four or five plays that we never called. I know we had at least two blown calls on defense.
“Those are mental mistakes we’re making that need to be fixed, because down the road — and down the road is gonna be next week now when we play what I think is gonna be a real good football team — we’re not getting away with it. We can get away with it tonight. We can get away with it last week, but not next week.”
San Benito will return to Hollister next Friday for Homecoming and a date with North Salinas. Although the Vikings owned a 1-3 record during its pre-TCAL slate, its four opponents currently boast an 18-1-1 record.
The Vikings (1-0 TCAL, 2-3) opened the TCAL Friday night with a 40-23 victory over Alisal.
“We need to really tighten up on our execution,” Cameron said. “Otherwise, we’re gonna be on the other side of the score. I can see it happen if we don’t get it together in terms of being on the same page everywhere.”
Although the game itself wasn’t picture-perfect, at least execution-wise, San Benito’s 44 points scored, and 31 points at halftime, were more than enough to dispatch the Eagles.
One week after posting the same score on a visiting Alisal team in Hollister, San Benito marched out to a sizeable lead on Alvarez in a rather similar way — a slow-and-steady 10 points in the first quarter, then an all-at-once 21 points in the second.
The Balers’ offense was aided by its defense in the first quarter when cornerback Jordan Ashford picked off a Miles Cunha pass on Alvarez’s opening drive — Ashford’s third interception this season — supplying San Benito with a first-and-10 at the Eagles 41.
Two rushing plays and 25 yards later by Nick Acosta, the quarterback Fabing faked the hand-off to the senior fullback from 11 yards out, then ran off the right guard to paydirt on just the third place from scrimmage.
Fabing finished with five carries for 17 yards, while Acosta had 78 yards on eight attempts.
Kicker Celestino Granados, who was 5 of 6 on point-after attempts, split the uprights later in the quarter on a 37-yard field goal to put the Balers up 10-0 early.
“Week to week, there’s always room to improve,” offensive lineman Courtland Thompson said. “We ask ourselves and each other every day, are we putting as much as we can out on the field.”
The game quickly got out of hand for Alvarez in the second quarter, however. After going three-and-out for the second consecutive time, a bad snap on a punt attempt resulted in a fumble, and San Benito linebacker Ryan DiSalvo corralled the loose football at the Eagle 18.
And once again, just two plays later, the Balers offense capitalized on its strong field position when Fabing hit wideout Andre Cornell on a middle screen for a 14-yard touchdown — the first play of the second quarter.
Cornell, who had just two receptions in the game but compiled 58 yards in the air, sprinted toward the left side of the end zone for the touchdown.
Just 50 seconds later, defensive back Conner Stevens would do the same.
Alvarez tried to open up its running game with a heavy dose of play-action pass, which worked at times but also resulted in two Cunha interceptions.
Stevens managed to convert one of the picks into six points.
“We were ready for it, and I thought we did pretty good against it,” Stevens said of the play-action.
San Benito’s D, which allowed just 147 yards of total offense Friday — 67 yards on the very last play of regulation — got into the scoring mix when the strong safety Stevens picked off a Cunha pass over the middle, then went 21 yards the other way to the end zone.
“When [the receiver] cut back in,” Stevens said, “it was all good.”
The Eagles were unable to bounce back, however, going three-and-out again on their very next possession. Following a punt, the Balers took over at the Alvarez 39, and Acosta ran off the right tackle toward the sideline for a 39-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage — the quarterback Fabing supplying a key block at the 10 to help Acosta cross the goal line untouched.
The score capped a 21-point period, as San Benito exploded to a 31-0 lead just three minutes and three seconds into the second quarter.
“But during halftime, coach Cameron was getting after us a little bit,” Thompson said. “We have too much of a big head, it feels like, that’s what he was saying. We’re too confident, and he says North Salinas is gonna bring the heat and we’ve just got to step up our game a little bit more.
“I have full confidence in our offense that we can step it up and play at any level. But there’s always room to improve.”
Thompson felt the halftime talk certainly helped, but one of the more glaring mistakes Cameron noted was a broken play deep in Alvarez territory midway through the third quarter.
On its second offensive possession in the half, the Balers marched 26 yards on six plays, and sat at the Eagles’ 1 with a first-and-goal. But when backup quarterback Tyler Decker tried to hand-off to a running back up the middle, the back went the other way and the exchange was missed.
Decker, who ran for 22 yards on seven attempts, still managed to turn around and score a 1-yard touchdown, nonetheless.
“But that wasn’t his fault. Somebody else was supposed to get the hand-off,” Cameron said. “Next week, we don’t score on that play. We’re hit in the backfield and now we gave up a down.
“Those are mental mistakes and things that are gonna come back and bite us really hard next week.”
The second-string offense looked impressive later in the fourth quarter, though. After Alvarez went three-and-out again — the Eagles were held to three-and-out six times Friday — San Benito orchestrated an 11-play, 70-yard drive, culminating with a 6-yard touchdown run by Cody Hendricks.
“We’re playing good, but we’ve got some better teams coming up,” Decker said. “We need to improve on offense, for sure.
“Our starters are better, but our second string is just gonna push the first string. We’ll practice hard this week and we’ll be ready.”
Next Friday’s match-up with the Vikings will showcase North Salinas’ vigorous running game and San Benito’s stout rush defense, which allowed 28 yards on 35 attempts Friday, and even kept Alvarez’s lead back Antonio Rosa to zero yards on seven carries.
The Vikings and Balers will square off at 7:30 p.m.
“I think we made a little more mental mistakes this week than we did last week,” linebacker Isaak Ramos said. “We need to improve on that because we’re gonna play a tougher team in the TCAL next week.”
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SB 10 21 6 7 44
EA 0 0 0 0 0
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
RUSH (8:39) — SB, Trevor Fabing, 11-yard touchdown, PAT (Celestino Granados) is good; 7-0, SB.
KICK (2:51) — SB, Celestino Granados, 37-yard field goal is good; 10-0, SB.
Second Quarter
PASS (11:54) — SB, Trevor Fabing to Andre Cornell, 14-yard touchdown, PAT (Celestino Granados) is good; 17-0, SB.
INTERCEPTION RETURN (11:04) — SB, Conner Stevens, 21-yard touchdown, PAT (Celestino Granados) is good; 24-0, SB.
RUSH (8:57) — SB, Nick Acosta, 39-yard touchdown, PAT (Celestino Granados) is good; 31-0 SB.
Third Quarter
RUSH (3:35) — SB, Tyler Decker, 1-yard touchdown, PAT (Celestino Granados) is no good; 37-0, SB.
Fourth Quarter
RUSH (7:35) — SB, Cody Hendricks, 6-yard touchdown, PAT (Celestino Granados) is good; 44-0, SB.
SAN BENITO STATISTICS
Passing: Trevor Fabing — 2 of 4, 58 yards, 1 touchdown; Tyler Decker — 0 of 2. Rushing: Trevor Fabing — 5 attempts, 17 yards, 1 touchdown; Tyler Decker — 7 attempts, 22 yards, 1 touchdown; Nick Acosta — 8 attempts, 78 yards, 1 touchdown; Cody Hendricks — 5 attempts, 17 yards, 1 touchdown; Bryan Gutierrez — 2 attempts, 7 yards; Nathan Castro — 1 attempt, 9 yards; James Flook — 2 attempts, 21 yards; Wayne Urbina — 4 attempts, 22 yards; Christian Goldstein — 3 attempts, 4 yards; Ernie Camacho — 2 attempts, 7 yards; Eddie Orozco — 1 attempt, 2 yards. Receiving: Andre Cornell — 2 receptions, 58 yards, 1 touchdown.
EVERETT ALVAREZ STATISTICS
Passing: Miles Cunha — 5 of 11, 119 yards, 2 interceptions. Rushing: Miles Cunha — 9 attempts, -24 yards; RB #9 — 9 attempts, 10 yards; Antonio Rosa — 7 attempts, 0 yards; Diego Garcia — 5 attempts, 25 yards; RB #22 — 5 attempts, 17 yards. Receiving: Crystian Reyes — 2 receptions, 10 yards; Louis Martinez — 1 reception, 19 yards; Josh Ramos — 1 reception, 23 yards; Alfredo Marchena — 1 reception, 67 yards.
TURNOVERS
San Benito — 0
Everett Alvarez — 3
TOTAL OFFENSE
San Benito — 264 yards (58 pass, 206 rush)
Everett Alvarez — 147 yards (119 pass, 28 rush)
JV Note:
The San Benito High junior varsity team defeated Everett Alvarez 23-0 Friday night behind a strong defense and a pair of touchdowns from quarterback Garrett Avina.
Avina pocketed both scores in the first half. The signal-caller ran 40 yards to paydirt in the first quarter and added a 10-yard rushing touchdown in the second to make it 14-0 Balers at the break.
San Benito was unable to score in the third quarter, although the team did tack on a safety in the fourth when Dalton Yancei made a tackle in the Eagles’ backfield.
Later in the quarter, Anthony Kaye made it a four-score game when he ran in for a touchdown from eight yards out.
“We played strong defense and we were able to move the ball pretty much at will,” San Benito junior varsity head coach Matt Andrade said.
The Balers improve to 2-0 in the Tri-County Athletic League with the victory, 5-1 overall.
San Benito will return home next Friday when it hosts North Salinas. Kick-off is 5 p.m.
Frosh Note:
The San Benito High freshmen football team lost to host Everett Alvarez 26-0 Friday night in Salinas.
No details were reported at press time.
With the loss, the Balers are now 1-1 in the Tri-County Athletic League, 3-2 overall.
San Benito will return home next Thursday when it hosts North Salinas. Kick-off is 6 p.m.
