The San Benito High football team needed to make an emphatic statement.
After two demoralizing losses to Palo Alto and Los Gatos — the latter causing the coaching staff to question the players’ character — the Haybalers responded in textbook fashion, rolling to a 37-7 win over visiting Oak Grove-San Jose on Friday.
San Benito finished with 357 yards of total offense — a whopping 330 coming on the ground — and the defense accounted for two touchdowns as the Balers (2-2) pulled away by outscoring Oak Grove (1-2) 23-0 in the fourth quarter.
Say this about the Balers: With their season possibly on the line — it would’ve been difficult to make the playoffs after a 1-3 start — they answered any questions about their willingness to compete.
“Seeing all of our guys play hard was nice, really nice,” San Benito coach Chris Cameron said. “Our defense pretty much had a shutdown night, and this was a game we had to have.”
The Balers produced a number of game-changing plays, something that was missing in the previous two weeks. Chris Blake had a 76-yard touchdown run, Cody McGrew returned an interception 35 yards for a score and Hayden Alvernaz returned a fumble 13 yards for a TD after teammate J.J. Melo forced an Oak Grove fumble.
The Balers led 6-0 at halftime — courtesy of Zak Hicks’ 34-yard TD run — and were never seriously threatened in the second half. San Benito started strong and finished even stronger.
“It’s not easy hearing your character being challenged, but we needed it,” said McGrew, a senior inside linebacker. “We’re a strong second-half team, and we showed it again tonight. I definitely say this is a season-changer for us.”
Although San Benito won big, this wasn’t an artistic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. The Balers finished with a season-high 13 penalties for 105 yards, and at one point late in the second quarter they committed three consecutive false-start infractions.
San Benito also had two turnovers — Oak Grove had four — and once again had some issues with botched pitches and snaps, resulting in several balls on the ground.
Fortunately for the Balers, they have a bye week to fix some of their fundamentals before starting Monterey Bay Gabilan Division play against Salinas on Oct. 11.
Although San Benito made some glaring mistakes, they found their run game again, which had gone MIA since a 31-14 win over Pioneer in the season opener.
Blake had a game-high 105 yards on just six carries, David Stanton had 89 yards rushing on 15 carries, Hicks had 60 on seven and Damian Botelho added 56 on seven.
The Balers ran left, ran right, ran up the gut, and Oak Grove couldn’t stop them.
