Everett Alvarez is 0-3-1 and has been outscored 97-13 this
year
After suffering a gut-wrenching 21-17 home loss to Bellarmine in
which the San Benito High football team outplayed the perennial
powerhouse West Catholic League school for most of the evening, the
Balers will be looking to right the ship quickly in tonight’s
league opener at Andy Hardin Stadium against the Eagles of Everett
Alvarez High School.
Everett Alvarez is 0-3-1 and has been outscored 97-13 this year
After suffering a gut-wrenching 21-17 home loss to Bellarmine in which the San Benito High football team outplayed the perennial powerhouse West Catholic League school for most of the evening, the Balers will be looking to right the ship quickly in tonight’s league opener at Andy Hardin Stadium against the Eagles of Everett Alvarez High School.
“Alvarez has got some good football players,” said Haybaler coach Chris Cameron, whose squad had been ranked No. 8 in the Central Coast Section prior to last week’s loss. “But the thing is it’s a team sport. You need more than one or two guys to get by. Collectively, they are still trying to find themselves.”
While the Eagles are trying to find themselves, the Balers will be trying to light up the scoreboard. And it shouldn’t be difficult against the Eagles – a 0-3-1 squad that has been outscored 97-13 this year.
In fact, Alvarez had not had a winning season in its four previous years in the Monterey Bay League.
This year, the Eagles are competing in the Tri County Athletic League along with Alisal. Both schools joined the league after Morgan Hill’s Live Oak and Sobrato High Schools left in order to compete in the more logistically friendly Blossom Valley Athletic League in San Jose.
“It’s tough for us to go into the TCAL,” said Alvarez first-year coach Bob Rawles. “We’re taking baby steps right now and are still in the process of trying to build up the program. I’ve always felt that the TCAL is one of the top five or six leagues in the state.”
While Rawles is trying to build up his program, the Balers are at the apex of theirs after capturing a CCS championship in the large school division last year. And despite last week’s setback against the Bells, the Balers are still 3-1 and have outscored their opponents 81-58 this season.
“They’re such a strong program all the way through,” Rawles said. “They are tough and physical and can be downright dominating. We want to model our program after theirs. In fact, I’ve already talked with Chris Cameron about getting together at the end of this season to talk with him about how he runs his program.
“Right now, we’re trying to set new standards here and develop this program. I don’t know if it will pay of this year, next year or four years from now but we are first getting the system in place that the kids are willing to buy into.”
While Cameron was trying to be diplomatic in his assessment of tonight’s gridiron battle it was clear that he wouldn’t be surprised to see his team deliver a knockout blow to the visitors early on, especially since his team is still chomping at the bit after the Bellarmine game.
“We really should have beat Bellarmine,” Cameron said. “We out gained them, out time-possessed them, out first-downed them and flat out outplayed them. Take away the dropped snap, the blocked punt and the interception and we win that game. We played well enough to win.”
The Balers first critical mistake in the game came late in the second quarter. At the time, San Benito held a commanding 10-0 lead on a 20-yard touchdown reception by Robbie Sanchez and a field goal by Dru Blake.
But the tide started to turn when Blake attempted to punt the ball from his own end zone late in the second quarter but dropped the snap.
By the time he was able to get the kick off, it was too late. The kick was blocked by Bellarmine’s Spencer Pollard and landed on in the end zone by Andy Mullen, which cut the Baler lead to 10-7.
In the fourth quarter Bellarmine grabbed its first lead of the night when Kevin Gonzales snagged an errant pass from Baler quarterback Ronnie Fhurong and took it the other way 67 yards for the score, which made it a 14-10 contest.
The Balers took a 17-14 lead with just over 10 minutes to go in the game when junior Abel Jacquez crossed the goal line from a yard out.
But the excitement and thoughts of beating a top private school all went for naught when Gonzales caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Bellarmine’s Jordan Vargas at the 3:13 mark of the game.
Despite the loss, the Balers held Bellarmine to less than 40 yards rushing on the night – a stat that kept Cameron in a positive frame of mind.
“We’re doing some good things, playing pretty solid D,” he said. “Our backs ran real tough. Sometimes you learn more from a loss than you do from a win.”
