After winning its first three games in impressive fashion, the San Benito High football team has lost two in a row—and the games weren’t close. Wilcox of Santa Clara dealt the Haybalers (3-2 overall, 0-1 MBL Gabilan) a 35-14 drubbing two weeks ago, and last week San Benito suffered a demoralizing 39-16 loss in its league opener to Salinas.
The game was basically even at halftime, with the Balers trailing 17-16. However, the Cowboys scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win going away. So how could a team that looked so strong in its first three games suffer such a drop off results-wise in consecutive weeks?
“Our problem right now is we’re playing as hard as we can, but we’re lacking and missing the details in practice and in the games when it comes to execution,” said Andrew Sotelo, a senior cornerback and strong safety. “And that lack of detail is causing turnovers and points being scored on us. We’re not doing the right assignments, including myself, and when you’re not doing the right things, bad things will occur.”
Despite having a pair of subpar games, Sotelo said the team is confident it could turn things around. One thing is for certain: If the Balers want to win their first league championship since the 2011 season, they might have to run the table to do it. Palma looks strong once again, as does Salinas.
No matter what happens the rest of the way, Sotelo has had a decorated career. A varsity football and baseball standout, Sotelo received some bad news in mid-August when he was diagnosed with osteochondritis dissecans, a condition in which bone underneath the cartilage of a joint dies due to a lack of blood flow.
Sotelo has had lingering pain in his right knee for the last couple of years, but at the end of July it flared up, forcing him to get it checked out. From a couple of visits, Sotelo had two choices: play through the pain during football season or get surgery immediately and miss playing both sports in his final year of high school.
Because Sotelo will be playing baseball in college and not football, he knew the best option would be to hold off on the surgery until the middle of December, or shortly after the football season. Even though the rehabilitation process is an arduous 10 months, Sotelo should still have time to heal up for his freshman season of college baseball, wherever he ends up playing.
Of course, it means he won’t be able to play baseball for his senior year, a huge blow for the San Benito baseball team.
“I just decided this a week ago,” Sotelo said. “I’d rather be ready for my first year of college baseball then have to redshirt and attend five years of college.”
It’s pretty amazing that Sotelo is able to play football. He played with a small brace on his right knee in the opener against Hilmar, but it didn’t do much to ease the pain or preventing his knee from swelling up. In fact, Sotelo knew if there wasn’t a superior brace available, his senior season was in serious jeopardy.
“With the smaller brace, I couldn’t even walk right, really,” he said. “The pain level was too high to run or jump.”
Fortunately for Sotelo, a better brace did exist—for a cool $800. After missing the team’s second game against Palo Alto, Sotelo used the new brace a week later against Los Gatos.
“The new brace has been good to me,” he said. “If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t be able to play. It’s still rough trying to run, but I’m doing what I can for my senior year.”
Even with the brace on, Sotelo isn’t close to 100 percent. The 5-foot-10, 170-pounder can move north-south, but has a much more difficult time moving laterally.
“It’s been frustrating a bit because I would’ve loved to play some receiver at times this season, but I’m limited to what I can do,” he said.
Even though the team has struggled the last two weeks, the Balers have an excellent chance to get back on the winning track as they host a 1-4 Monterey team on Friday. The Balers had an 8 a.m. meeting on Monday, a rare occurrence.
“We needed to touch up on things to get back on track,” Sotelo said.
Despite the loss to Salinas, the Balers still totaled 229 yards on the ground. However, they only finished with 31 yards passing, and Salinas used a big game from quarterback Matt Castaneda (14-for-21, 226 yards) to pull ahead. Hunter Nye rushed for 111 yards on 23 carries—he’s gone over the century mark in every game this season—and Kyle Cameron finished with a season-high 96 yards on nine carries.
