SBHS comes into game with 2-2 record in TCAL
The San Benito High School football team’s playoff hopes are
still alive thanks to the Balers 27-14 win at Alisal last week,
which moved the local high school team to 2-2 in league play and
3-5 overall.
Tonight the Balers will look to extend the win streak to two
games when they travel to Salinas to butt helmets with the Cowboys
of Salinas High at 7:30 p.m. A win against the Cowboys followed by
a win next week at home against archrival Gilroy would put the
Balers at 4-2 in league
– which should be good enough to qualify for the Central Coast
Section playoffs.
SBHS comes into game with 2-2 record in TCAL
The San Benito High School football team’s playoff hopes are still alive thanks to the Balers 27-14 win at Alisal last week, which moved the local high school team to 2-2 in league play and 3-5 overall.
Tonight the Balers will look to extend the win streak to two games when they travel to Salinas to butt helmets with the Cowboys of Salinas High at 7:30 p.m. A win against the Cowboys followed by a win next week at home against archrival Gilroy would put the Balers at 4-2 in league – which should be good enough to qualify for the Central Coast Section playoffs.
But even with the positive shift in momentum, Baler head coach Chris Cameron knows that his team still has a lot of hard work ahead of them before they can start thinking playoffs.
“I know one thing,” Cameron said. “We’ve got to limit the penalties. Last week we had 17 penalties. We can’t do that against Salinas and expect to win the game. Overall, I think we’ve made a lot of progress as a team, in terms of execution. We are getting better. Defensively, we have made some nice progress, we’re also blocking better and we’ve been tough against the run.”
The Cowboys enter tonight’s game fresh off a disappointing 18-13 loss to North Salinas. The Cowboys are now 1-3 record in league and a 4-4 mark overall – two stats that Cameron was unaware of.
“This year, I haven’t even bothered to pay attention to anyone else’s records,” he said. “I’m just working on trying to improve our team – to be competitive for a football game for four quarters.”
Against the Trojans, the Balers jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the opening quarter and never looked back. San Benito’s first touchdown came courtesy of a 1-yard scoring run by quarterback Ronnie Fhurong. From there, senior running back Levi Sutton made his way into the end zone via a 14-yard scamper that extended the Baler lead to 14-0 early in the second quarter.
San Benito extended its lead to 17-0 on a 22-yard field goal by Gustavo Silva. In the third quarter the Balers went up 24-0 on a 3-yard burst into the end zone by Mitchell Cook.
Alisal finally made it into the end zone on a 5-yard touchdown run by Jesus Moreno, who also scored the game’s final touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Balers final score came off the leg of Silva, who made his second field goal of the night from 27 yards out early on in the fourth quarter.
Against the Cowboys the Baler defense will look to shut down running back Daniel Rincon, who racked up 93 yards and a touchdown in the loss to the Vikings last week. Rincon has rushed for 521 yards this season and four touchdowns.
The Cowboys also like to put the ball up in the air and try to spread out the gridiron by throwing down field early and often. Salinas quarterback Michael Sisson has thrown for more than 1,000 yards this year and he has a slew of receivers that can pull the ball down for big gains.
In last week’s loss to the Vikings, wide receiver Victor Sapp scored two touchdowns. The other players Sisson likes to hook up with either down field or with the short outlet pass are Ryan Gregg and Rincon. Gregg leads the team in receiving yards (395) and touchdowns (5) this season.
Sisson also has the luxury of playing behind a big offensive line that will help him buy time in the pocket.
“They’ve got a pretty good running back [Rincon] who runs down hill and is real tough,” Cameron said. “They are a big strong physical team. For us to win we can’t have the penalties or the fumbles. We have to play clever football game for us to have a chance.”
