SALINAS—It was only fitting Friday’s Central Coast Section Division I playoff semifinal ended with J.J. Melo recording a sack—his third of the contest—in the San Benito High football team’s 26-6 whipping of host Alvarez.
Melo, a senior defensive lineman, needed two sacks to break the school’s all-time mark held by Allan Renz, with 16. Melo now has 18, and there’s still one more game left, and it’s a doozy—a rematch with top-seed Salinas (8-4) for the championship next Friday at Rabobank Stadium.
“It feels good to be back playing for the championship,” Melo said. “We lost last year, and it felt terrible. But like our coaches keep saying, it’s our time.”
There’s no question November is the Balers’ time—they’re now 12-2 in the month in the last three years. The No. 3 seed Balers (8-4), who are appearing in the Division I title game for the third year in a row, are seeking their seventh section title in program history.
And just like in the semifinal, San Benito gets a chance to avenge a league loss. The Balers tend to do well in rematches—just ask No. 2 seed Alvarez, which saw its season end to San Benito for the second straight year in the same exact round.
Although the score wasn’t nearly as one-sided this time—the Eagles lost 37-7 to the Balers in the postseason a year ago—they didn’t exactly make Friday’s contest competitive. San Benito never trailed, and it led 19-0 when Alvarez scored its first—and only—touchdown of the game with 2 minutes, 34 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Eagles never came close to scoring again. Instead, the Balers delivered the dagger with one of their signature, keep-away specialties in the form of a 61-yard, nine-play drive that culminated with Justice Felice’s second touchdown of the game, a 6-yard run that accounted for the final score with 1:51 remaining.
On the final play of the game, Melo chased down Eagles quarterback Edric Gamble—who torched San Benito for 223 yards rushing in a 34-27 Alvarez overtime win on Oct. 17—for a sack, forcing a fumble in the process.
“It feels great to end the game that way,” Melo said. “The record is nice, but the only reason I’m getting sacks is because we’ve got guys who are always coming off the edge that opens things up for me. Credit goes to all of my teammates.”
The Balers didn’t have to make huge adjustments in containing Gamble, who is a dynamic runner in the open field. In the teams’ first meeting, Gamble got loose early and often.
On Friday, however, San Benito stayed disciplined in its gap assignments, and a ferocious pass rush left Gamble with few options to run or pass.
“We had to have every single gap covered no matter what,” Melo said. “That’s what coach (Tod) Thatcher emphasized, and I felt like we accomplished that tonight.”
San Benito’s defense set the tone early, as Louie Bustillos tackled Gamble in the end zone for a safety for the game’s first points with 5:05 left in the first quarter. The Balers took the ensuing drive and needed just five plays to score their first TD, when quarterback R.J. Clark and Felice executed a perfect fake fullback dive handoff that had everyone on the Alvarez defense fooled.
After the fake to Felice—in which the entire Alvarez defense collapsed over center—Clark had nothing but clear sailing down the left seam to the end zone. Two plays earlier, Clark hit Felice for a 14-yard gain, the key play of the series.
Felice also had a 1-yard TD run and Carlos Miranda drilled a 36-yard field goal with 4:30 left until halftime. San Benito’s defense held Alvarez to just 132 yards of total offense, while the Balers totaled 243 yards, 229 of which came on the ground.
Hunter Nye had a game-high 61 yards on nine carries, while Chris Blake and Felice finished with 47 and 45 yards, respectively.
In the postgame huddle, the team had already been notified that it would be facing Salinas in the final.
“We can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in that matchup,” Melo said.
