Baler football is taking its winning show to the Salad Bowl
The San Benito High football team will do something tonight that
it hasn’t done in six weeks
– play on the road.
”
It’s going to be difficult. We haven’t been on the road for six
weeks now,
”
Baler Offensive Coordinator Rick Dukes said.
”
We have forgotten what it’s like to get on a bus.
”
Baler football is taking its winning show to the Salad Bowl
The San Benito High football team will do something tonight that it hasn’t done in six weeks – play on the road.
“It’s going to be difficult. We haven’t been on the road for six weeks now,” Baler Offensive Coordinator Rick Dukes said. “We have forgotten what it’s like to get on a bus.”
That minor memory lapse isn’t expected to slow down the 4-1 Balers when they travel to the Salinas Sports Complex for a game against the 1-5 North Salinas High Vikings.
What could slow them down somewhat or at least give them some headaches is the added knowledge that Vikings coach Steve Zenk brings to the contest.
Just a few years ago, Zenk was wrapping up a four-year stint as a line coach for the Balers were he worked with both the offensive and defense.
“Most people know that we play real physical and we do that as well as anybody,” Dukes said. “All he really knows is our process and how we go into a game. He doesn’t have the playbook, but there are no real secrets anyway. The bottom line is that we get our players ready to play.”
This week Dukes and head coach Chris Cameron have been focusing a lot on stopping the blitz.
The Baler staff anticipate that North Salinas, in an attempt to disrupt the Baler offense and quarterback Ronald Fhurong, will run a lot of blitz plays at them. It’s the type of game-plan strategy that struggling teams often use in hopes of making a big play.
The Balers will attempt to counter that with shorter quarterback drops that will allow for a quicker release of the ball as well as planning for added pass protection by better utilizing the running backs and tight end.
“They are faster than we are and they have good athletes,” Dukes said. “They’ll blitz a lot, but we can do some things to help control it. I think it’s really going to come down to what it does every week, making big plays on defense. No one is able to move the ball consistently on us.”
This season the Baler defense is allowing a scrooge-like 205 yards of offense a game and is giving up slightly more than 12 points.
Much of that is a result of the strong play in the Baler secondary by Zach Canez and linebackers Johnny Sanchez, Nate Mendoza and Ricardo Correa.
Canez has a league-leading four interceptions while Sanchez, who leads the Balers in tackles, has a pair of picks to his credit.
“We’re going to have to execute on offense and tackle on defense to keep up with these guys, it’s a nice and easy solution,” North Salinas coach Steve Zenk said. “They also do a lot of wing-T stuff. We run more of a fly offense. It will be nice to be playing them at home.”
When the Balers have the ball, North Salinas can expect a heavy dose of senior running back Tim Lango, who has racked up 559 yards and four touchdowns this season.
And when Fhurong is looking to go deep or dump the ball off on a quick outlet pass he’ll be looking for Carlos Ramos, who has a touchdown and 121 receiving yards this year, Dru Blake and Ricky Sanchez to make a play.
Although the Balers are expected to win this contest, the Vikings also have several key weapons on their roster that could give the visitors some trouble.
Running back Devin Camel has nearly 400 yards rushing this season and his teammate, Excalibur Holder, has four touchdowns and nearly 250 yards rushing himself.
The Vikings also have a trio of receivers with over 100 yards this season but their biggest threat in the air is Victor Sapp, who leads the receiving core with two touchdowns.
With quarterback Michael Ramos in the huddle the Vikings are also expected to go to the air frequently. This season Ramos has nearly 650 passing yards, but he is prone to throwing picks when pressured, which should have the ball-swarming Baler defense licking their chops.
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
