It’s all about pride. It’s all about the trophy.
The winner between the San Benito High and Gilroy High football
teams will not only take an early lead in the Tri-County Athletic
League but will also bring home the much coveted VFW Prune Bowl
Trophy.
It’s all about pride. It’s all about the trophy.
The winner between the San Benito High and Gilroy High football teams will not only take an early lead in the Tri-County Athletic League but will also bring home the much coveted VFW Prune Bowl Trophy.
“We’re going to play hard because we want that trophy to stay here,” said senior center Nick Kostielney.
San Benito (3-1-1) is hoping to continue its streak of dominance over red-hot Gilroy. The Haybalers have won eight of the last ten meetings. And in the last two games, it has hasn’t even been close. The Balers pounded Gilroy 78-13 in the those two games.
Gilroy coaches are still crying foul after last year’s 20-point loss to the Balers.
“I don’t think the referees decided the football game,” said Baler coach Chris Cameron.
A San Benito victory won’t be easy against a Gilroy team that has been perfect in the preseason. Gilroy (5-0) defeated North County 14-7 last week. Even though that was North County’s closest loss of the their four losses, Cameron said the score was deceptive.
“They didn’t win by a big score here other day, but they totally dominated the game,” Cameron said.
Gilroy’s Justin Sweeny has been the major scoring threat for Gilroy. Already he has almost 900 yards rushing and has scored 12 touchdowns. He’s even sat out numerous times in the second half.
“They have lot of good players – then one exceptional player. He is the real McCoy,” Cameron said. “He will be a big factor for us to try to stop. But they run a lot of formations and a lot of movements. They do a lot of no-huddles, and they have been playing real good defense. When you play good defense, you tend to get good field position. They have had a lot of big plays too.”
Both defenses are strong. If you take out the first game that the Balers gave up 41 points and the team wasn’t fully healthy, San Benito is allowing an average of 12 points a game, while Gilroy is averaging 11.2.
Gilroy has almost three times as much yardage gained on the ground than in the air. But Hollister has a more balanced attack.
“They have probably one of the fastest Gilroy teams I have seen in a long time,” Cameron said. “They got good overall speed. This is probably one of the best Gilroy teams we have had to match up against. But we’ve had better Hollister teams lining up in the past.”
The Balers had last week off to rest after a tough preseason schedule.
Injures have taken their toll for the Balers in the preseason. But even still, they lost just once to Valley Christian High, the best team in the section.
San Benito had eight players out during that game, but most are back now. However the Balers will be without kicker Art Esparza, who is nursing a recent injury. Dru Blake will be handling the kicking duties in his place.
“We’ve played a tougher preseason schedule, there’s no secret about that,” Cameron said. “I think that will help us because we have played really good football teams.”
“We’re playing another good football team, so it is not like we have been playing pansies. We’ve stacked our schedule that way so we don’t have any surprises.”
The game is Friday at 7:30pm in Gilroy.
