Turnovers the main focus of tonight’s battle with Wilcox
Last week the San Benito High football team was able to pull off
a crushing 30-10 win over San Lorenzo Valley despite turning the
ball over a handful of times on offense.
Fortunately for the Balers and their fans, those miscues were
nullified thanks to an outstanding night by the Baler defense that
held the Cougar team to just 25 rushing yards.
Turnovers the main focus of tonight’s battle with Wilcox
Last week the San Benito High football team was able to pull off a crushing 30-10 win over San Lorenzo Valley despite turning the ball over a handful of times on offense.
Fortunately for the Balers and their fans, those miscues were nullified thanks to an outstanding night by the Baler defense that held the Cougar team to just 25 rushing yards.
But tonight concerns over the Balers’ ability to hang onto the football is what Offensive Coordinator Rick Dukes is most focused on as his squad takes on a much bigger and more-polished Wilcox High team than what they saw last week. Tonight’s kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. in Hollister.
“[San Lorenzo Valley] was not as good as they were last year. This week we can’t turn the ball over like we did last week (and get away with it),” Dukes said. “We had five fumbles in the first half alone and lost four of them. Fortunately, we had five interceptions on the other side of the ball that made up for it.”
Those interceptions were brought in by Johnny Sanchez, Brett Pirtle, Dru Blake, Ricardo Correa and Zach Canez, which shows the depth of the Baler defensive secondary and line-backing core.
To help balance things out, when they take on the Chargers tonight Dukes and company will be relying on the play of junior quarterback Ronnie Fhurong to spread the ball around as well as the running attack of senior Tim Lango and juniors Abel Jacquez and Jordan Klindt.
Against the Cougars, Lango had 77 yards on 12 carries for 6.4 yards-per-carry average. For the season the back has 253 yards on the ground and a touchdown.
“Tim has great vision,” said Dukes of his 5-foot-7, 180-pound running back. “He sees the holes, has quick feet and cuts well. He makes people miss.”
While Lango leads in the season statistics, Jacquez led the way last Friday night at home as he crossed the goal line twice in just 11 carries. His first came in the opening quarter, which helped the Balers jump out to a 7-0 lead.
Jacquez’ second trip to the Promise Land came midway through the Balers’ 20-point third quarter that put the game away.
“He came up as a sophomore last year and split time with Jeff Weltz,” Dukes said. “He’s a good, tough runner, who runs inside real well. He’s a good blocker and he can catch the ball well out of the backfield too.”
Against the Cougars the Balers other go-to guy on the ground was Klindt, who had 26 yards on six carries. For the season he has 85 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s pretty capable – a good tough runner who can block too,” Dukes said. “He catches the ball well too, the complete package.”
The two Baler players on the offensive line that will have a major role in opening up the holes for the ground attack are juniors Danny Gallant and Josh Huaracha – the only two returning starters on the offensive line from last year’s Central Coast Section championship team.
“We’ve battled turnovers and we have some inexperience on the O-line,” said Dukes, who has been part of the Baler coaching staff since 1994. “We’re also physically pretty small but the kids are great and they gives it their all for four quarters.”
As the defending CCS champs, Dukes also knows that the Balers need to be firing on all eight cylinders on both sides of the ball this season as opposing teams are looking for any and every opportunity to get a leg up on the section champs.
“Teams are playing us tough. Aptos (season opener) put it out all on the line against us,” he said. “They had trick plays and everything else against us and they play hard. I think Wilcox will do more of the same. They are big and fast and are usually smash mouth. They always have big lineman and running backs that can play.”
Last week Wilcox High beat Terra Nova by a score of 14-7.
