SALINAS—In the era of prolific, no-huddle spread offenses, defense still wins championships.
The San Benito High football team proved that Friday night in a 14-7 victory over top-seed Salinas in the Central Coast Section Division I playoff championship game at Rabobank Stadium.
It was the No. 3 seed Haybalers’ seventh section title in program history, and first since 2012.
“This is a feeling you can’t describe,” said Balers safety Austin Cascio, who made two pivotal plays that had a direct outcome on the game. “It’s pretty nice we were able to come out and win after we lost here last year.”
San Benito (9-4) lost to a superior Milpitas squad in the 2013 title game, and ever since then all the returning players could think about was coming back to finish the deal. What made this year’s run all the more special was the fact that it avenged two league losses in the process, to Alvarez and Salinas.
The Balers got it done with an offense that did just enough, strong special-teams play and a defense that proved to be the team’s foundation in the last month of the season.
To wit: In three playoff games, San Benito allowed a grand total of 13—yes, 13—points. In the team’s last three regular-season contests, it yielded only 26 points, which included a critical 17-13 win over Palma on Nov. 7.
“It’s tough to lose when your defense doesn’t give up points,” said Chris Cameron, who won his fourth section title at the school in his 21st season. “Everything starts with (defensive coordinator) Tod (Thatcher). He’s a great football coach, a great mind. He puts the players in a position to make plays.”
Indeed, with linemen J.J. Melo and Jose Perez providing pressure, combined with a linebacker corps and secondary that rallied to the ball-carrier as if their life depended on it, San Benito proved to be downright stingy in limiting Salinas to a single touchdown.
In fact, all of the game’s scoring occurred in the third quarter. The Balers took the opening possession of the second half and went 57 yards on six plays, culminating when R.J. Clark hit Chris Blake on a reverse screen pass that had the entire Salinas defense fooled.
Clark initially stared to his left to get the defense going one way, then quickly pivoted to his right to find an open Blake on the right seam. Blake had nothing but daylight down the sideline en route to a 31-yard touchdown.
After the te ams traded turnovers, Salinas tied things up with 3 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third quarter when quarterback Zach Mcdermott—the Monterey Bay League Gabilan Division Most Valuable Player—scored on a 30-yard keeper.
The Cowboys’ celebration was short-lived. On the ensuing kickoff, Blake delivered an electrifying 82-yard TD return, using a nifty spin move just past midfield before outracing several Salinas players down the right sideline to account for the final score of the game with 3:13 left in the third.
It was Blake’s first-ever kickoff return for a touchdown, and it came at the perfect time. Blake usually is the team’s deep return man. However, since Salinas tends to be a bit unpredictable when it comes to kickoffs, Blake positioned himself a few yards shallower than normal.
Talk about a bit of serendipity. On his nifty spin move that allowed him to elude defenders near midfield, Blake combined athleticism and vision to elude the Cowboys.
“That move came out of no where,” Blake said. “I hoped for the best and fortunately was home free. It was definitely one of those plays that just happened—I cut left and spun right. … (The screen pass) totally caught Salinas off-guard because we hadn’t done a screen pass all night.”
Not surprisingly, Cascio made his presence felt again. The senior tends to be around the ball at the most important times, and Friday was no exception. He helped break up a pass in the back of the end zone on one of the game’s critical plays, when Salinas bypassed a short field goal attempt to go for it on a fourth-and-goal from the Balers’ 5-yard line.
It was the series following Blake’s kickoff return for a TD, and Salinas never came close to scoring again. Cascio also came up with San Benito’s third interception of the game when he picked off a Mcdermott pass with 2:19 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Isaac Regalado came up huge with two interceptions, a big reason why Mcdermott finished just 15-of-34 passing for 169 yards.
“We knew it was going to come down to defense,” Cameron said. “Mcdermott is the best player in the league, and we found a way to stop him pretty good.”
Although it wasn’t an artistic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination—the Balers committed nine penalties for 75 yards while putting the ball on the ground three times, recovering all three—they found a way to win.
Ultimately, that’s what all championship teams do. They did it by coming together—“This is probably the tightest group I’ve ever played with,” Blake said—and using a workmanlike attitude instilled in them by the coaching staff to peak toward the end of the season.
“Beating Palma was probably the difference maker of our season,” Blake said.
Blake and Cascio both admitted they were a bundle of nerves the night before the biggest game of their lives.
“It was nerve-wracking. All I could think about was making plays and how the team would play together,” Cascio said.
Said Blake: “All I could think about was how were we going to come together. For it to happen, it’s one of the most amazing, best feelings ever.”
Salinas totaled 324 yards of offense to the Balers’ 217. But San Benito committed just one turnover to the Cowboys’ three, and its defense buckled down whenever Salinas reached the red zone.
Hunter Nye rushed for a team-high 52 yards on 14 carries, and Clark rushed for 42 yards while passing for 63 more.
Blake’s kickoff return for a TD wasn’t the only solid play from the special-teams unit. In a defensive battle, where every yard is at a premium, a punter proves paramount. The Balers’ Diego Fisher was up to the task, delivering a booming 53-yard punt on his second punt of the game.
Fisher made sure the team wouldn’t lose the battle of field position, consistently producing either high-arcing punts or line drives that didn’t allow the Salinas returner to make a play on.
And Regalado came up with one of the game’s key plays when he intercepted a pass at San Benito’s 20-yard line with Salinas threatening to score.
The Cowboys had just blocked a punt, and they were in prime position to score the game’s first points midway through the second quarter. However, Regalado made sure the Balers wouldn’t go into halftime with a deficit.
Cameron said the team made a subtle change to its defensive philosophy in the Palma game, running fewer zone coverage schemes. From there, the San Benito defense took its play up another level, leading to football nirvana.
“This is probably the tightest group I’ve ever played with,” Blake said. “Winning with guys you love makes it that much better.”
Game box
San Benito 0 0 14 7—21
Salinas 0 0 7 0 0—7
Scoring summary
SB—Blake 31 pass from Clark (Miranda kick)
SAL—Mcdermott 30 run (Farias kick)
SB—Blake 82 kickoff return (Miranda kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING (carries-yards): SAN BENITO—Clark 11-42, Nye 14-52, Blake 7-21, Lovato 5-14, Felice 7-19, Cameron 3-6. Totals 47-154. SALINAS—Mcdermott 15-63, Leighton 12-46, Balestreri 2-0, Garcia 6-40, Olivarria 1-7, Castaneda 1-(-1). Totals 37-155.
PASSING (comp-att-yds-td-int): SAN BENITO—Clark 3-8-63-1-1. SALINAS—Mcdermott 15-34-169-0-3.
RECEIVING (catches-yards): SAN BENITO—Pasillas 1-24, Blake 1-31, Sotelo 1-8. Totals 3-63. SALINAS—Leighton 5-100, Crosby 3-22, Marquez III 1-0, Olivarria 4-42, Rivera 1-4, Windham 1-1. Totals 15-169.
TOTAL OFFENSE (rush-pass-total): SAN BENITO 154-63-217. SALINAS—155-169-324.
