Four years ago when Milpitas and San Benito met, the Balers won
in overtime. However, Saturday night’s Central Coast Section
Division 2 matchup at Andy Hardin Field was even wilder.
No. 4 San Benito held on to win 35-28 over No. 5 Milpitas and
moves on to face No. 1 Los Gatos on Friday at 3 p.m. at San Jose
City College in the CCS semifinals.
Four years ago when Milpitas and San Benito met, the Balers won in overtime. However, Saturday night’s Central Coast Section Division 2 matchup at Andy Hardin Field was even wilder.
No. 4 San Benito held on to win 35-28 over No. 5 Milpitas and moves on to face No. 1 Los Gatos on Friday at 3 p.m. at San Jose City College in the CCS semifinals.
Los Gatos is coming off a 52-13 win over Alisal and is considered one of the strongest teams in the area. The Balers will have their work cut out in practice this week.
“They and Oak Grove are probably the premier high football teams in the section,” said Baler coach Chris Cameron, whose team is 8-2-1. “We played the top private schools; now we have the chance to play one of the top public schools.”
Milpitas played Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division rival Los Gatos earlier in the year and lost 49-7.
“They (Los Gatos) are a very good football team,” said Milpitas coach Kelly King. “It will be an uphill challenge. We had a couple turnovers (tonight) that we couldn’t capitalize on. That’s what good football teams have to be able to do.”
It wasn’t the prettiest of wins Saturday, but the Balers will take it any way it comes.
“I don’t think we played our best game, but we did enough to win and we’re moving on,” Cameron said. “We scored some points in the second half. But we didn’t tackle well or anything.”
The Balers looked to be clearly in control of the game after going up 20-7 at the half. San Benito added to the score on the first drive of the third quarter.
The Balers called timeout on the Milpitas 12-yard line on a fourth down. Nick Bailey picked up 10 yards and the first down, and Manny Hinojos ran it in for the two-yard touchdown.
After Karson Klauer found the end zone on the two-point attempt, the Balers held a 28-7 lead. But things started to get interesting after Carlos Correa came up with an 86-yard punt return to get Milpitas back into the game with 8:38 left in the third quarter.
“We wanted to play hard coming down here – it’s a tough place to play,” King said. “We were throwing the ball pretty well. We worked on some of their blitz packages they threw at us. We countered that one blitz with the long touchdown pass.”
That 67-yard strike to Correa down the right side brought the Trojans within 28-20 after the PAT was missed.
“We ran a zone blitz, and the safety didn’t get over the top,” Cameron said. “And the guy ran past him on a little fade rout.”
San Benito appeared to have some momentum on the next drive. After almost being intercepted due to heavy Milpitas pressure, Klauer found running back Gabe Gaitan on a 20-yard screen pass.
Klauer had what would have been a 39-yard touchdown run negated because of an illegal formation called against the Balers.
The Baler defense forced a three-and-out to give the offense the ball back.
After a couple nice runs by Klauer, Gaitan and Chris Brigantino, Bailey scored on a nine-yard touchdown run. Bailey spun off the tackler and gave the Balers what proved to be the winning score with 2:36 left in the game.
Twenty seconds later, Mipitas made it a one-touchdown game on the first play of the drive. Doug Cech found running back Michael Fulbright on a 56-yard completion. The first two-point attempt was unsuccessful, but the Trojans had a second chance after a penalty and converted.
With 2:14 left, Milpitas went with the onside kick. It almost worked. The ball hit the ground and took a funny bounce and skipped over Ken Romero. It changed hands a couple times under the pile, but the Balers were ruled to have come up with it despite the Milpitas protest.
Milpitas had one final shot with 54 second left, but the defense forced three incomplete passes for the win.
Despite giving up several big plays, the Baler defense still came out with some nice stops when needed in the game.
“We came out strong,” said defensive back Chris Uribe, who recovered a Milpitas fumble in the second quarter. “We never gave up. I felt we played with a little more heart and wanted it more.”
The Balers got on the board first less than two minutes into the game. Jeff Hawks picked off a pass on the opening drive from quarterback Cech. Receiver David Hale bobbled it briefly, and Hawks went to the ground to pick it up.
Brigantino ran the ball in from 12 yards out for the touchdown, but the following PAT hit the upright and bounced away.
Milpitas answered by scoring a touchdown of its own on a turnover. R-Jay Benevides picked off a Klauer pass. Benevides fumbled it briefly, and Correa returned it back about 15 yards to the Baler 32-yard line.
Correa then hauled in the 17-yard touchdown pass from Cech with 1:53 left in the first quarter, and the PAT was good to give the Trojans a point advantage.
But that was the last lead the Trojans would have in the game.
