Fans watching the San Benito High football team Friday night
were left with one one thought: These kids have got heart.
Fans watching the San Benito High football team Friday night were left with one one thought: These kids have got heart.
They’ve got football skills to match.
The Haybalers advanced to the Central Coast Section Large School semifinal round after routing Milpitas 47-0 on a Friday night performance that was well beyond convincing.
Despite the exhileration of the rout, there was no taunting, no trash talking and no mental lapses resulting in unnecessary penalties. On both sides of the ball, classy football by classy players was on display – and the Balers are now poised for a real run at a CCS title.
San Benito came into the contest well aware of the challenge they were going to face in stopping the Trojans’ 6-0 185 pound running back Michael Fullbright. Fullbright rushed for 1,200 yards over the course of the regular season. But on Friday night, the Balers’ defense held him to a mere 28 yards on 13 carries.
“We were able to get (Fullbright) before he got out of the gate tonight,” said San Benito coach Chris Cameron. “The key was winning the battle up front. If you can’t get past the line of scrimmage, you’re going to have a tough time scooting. And we’ve seen him scoot on film this year.”
The Haybalers didn’t budge an inch for Fullbright all night and as the second quarter neared its end, the Milpitas star had run the ball 11 times for a net gain of negative two yards.
Threat neutralized.
Milpitas quarterback Kevin Lee was also rendered ineffective by San Benito’s suffocating defensive play, going 3-14 for only 20 total yards. He took some punishment also. Late in the second quarter, the Balers brought the blitz and Colin Parker came free on Lee’s blind side.
The ensuing hit was massive to say the least.
Parker simply flattened Lee, instantly popping the ball loose for teammate Anthony Vasquez to scoop up. Once Vasquez had control of the football, he rumbled his way down the field for a 55-yard touchdown, effectivly putting the game away by giving his team a 27-0 advantage.
“I was so excited because I got a blitz and I haven’t been blitzing much this season,” Vasquez said. “I saw Colin make the hit and the ball hit the ground and I knew it was my ball. All I could think was, ‘Don’t kick the ball.’ I give it up to everybody on the team. We played for four quarters and put up a goose egg on them.
“But we want to get to the championship game. It’s going to take a lot of hard work.”
San Benito’s offense was a picture of efficency. Quarterback Karson Klauer needed just six pass attempts to gain 137 yards, including a beautiful pass to Anthony Francis, who showed off his athletic ability once again by getting airborne, stretching out almost fully horizontal, and making a spectacular fingertip grab.
Charles Thompson was his usual defense-frustrating self, carrying the ball four times for 42 yards and scoring on a 65-yard run following a crafty screen pass from Klauer. Chris Brigantino, playng the work horse role, racked up 32 hard-fought yards on seven carries.
“It’s going to get a whole lot tougher from here on out,” said Cameron, whose team will face either Wilcox or Santa Teresa in the CCS semifinals. “There’s no cruising in second round games.”
Live Oak crushed by Oak Grove
What was the number of that truck that laid out the Live Oak High football team on Friday night? All most people saw was a 22, but there were a whole host of numbers that contributed to the Acorns’ thorough thrashing in the first round of the CCS playoffs.
For the record, it was Oak Grove running back Burton Iosefa (No. 22) and his big, talented offensive line that did the most damage as the host Eagles ran away with a 54-13 rout of Live Oak.
Running loose behind his blockers, Iosefa rushed for 281 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 1 Oak Grove to the runaway victory over the No. 8 Acorns, who finished the season 8-3 overall.
The obvious disparity between the two teams was not lost on Live Oak coach Glen Webb or his players, who had seen Oak Grove in a preseason scrimmage hosted by the Acorns in August. The Eagles looked good then but they looked far better Friday night.
“It would have been interesting to put both teams on the scales and see what they outweighed us by,” Webb chuckled after the game. “It was a tough draw for us in the first round, and there are probably teams in the playoffs that we could (beat). But it’s the nature of the playoffs that you’re going to have to face them eventually.”
Senior receiver/defensive back Doug Porras said the Eagles were one of the physically toughest teams that LO had faced this season.
“We played a lot of physical teams but not like this,” Porras said. “We hung with them as long as we could.”
Indeed, the Acorns trailed by just 14-13 early in the second quarter after a 56-yard TD run by Dustin Muhn and a 21-yard scoring pass from QB David Iseman to Porras, but things disintegrated from there.
Oak Grove would add a Iosefa TD, a 30-yard field goal, and the backbreaker – a 68-yard interception return for a TD with just seconds to go in the first half – to go up 31-13 heading into halftime.
Then, in the second half, the Eagles scored on their first two possessions, on a pair of long Iosefa runs, and the rout was on.
Despite the loss, LO rebounded from a 24-game winless streak heading into the season to win its first seven games of the year, take third in league and make the CCS playoffs for the first time since 2000.
