Central Coast tops Salinas 44-28 Saturday, clinches National
Conference South Division with Warriors loss to Pacifica
GILROY
As it turns out, Saturday’s victory only got better with age.
One year after losing two crucial contests to rival Salinas – an expansion team two years ago that featured eight former Barnstormers – Central Coast did its best to return the favor by routing the visiting Spartans 44-28 at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex in Gilroy behind a five-touchdown performance from quarterback Bryan Smith.
“It’s huge. It’s real big,” said Barnstormers head coach Greg Garcia, who was recently hired to take over the Gilroy HIgh football program. “You don’t have a rivalry unless you can beat somebody.”
The win, Central Coast’s sixth straight and seventh overall, only got sweeter as the night progressed. Not only did the 16-point victory supply the dagger to a reeling Spartans (4-4) team which has lost three of its last four games, but coupled with Pacifica’s 52-0 drubbing of the California Warriors (4-4) Saturday night, the Barnstormers clinched the National Conference South Division with two games to go.
“This was a big one,” Garcia said. “They had a lot of our old players, you know, the friendships are there. Even between Gilroy, Hollister and Salinas, for the majority of our guys this is a huge rivalry already, carried over. Knocking them out of there? Even better because we’re on a roll.”
At 7-1, Central Coast is tied with the North Bay Rattlers for the second best record in the Northern California Football League, trailing only the defending national champion Pacifica Islanders (8-0).
And with six straight wins to its name, as well as a South Division title in tow, the Barnstormers are in the enviable position to finish out the last two weeks of the regular season at home.
“We just talked Wednesday about coming out and playing the way we’ve played the last two, three years,” said Smith, whose five-touchdown day included 395 yards on 23 of 33 passing and two interceptions.
“We just wanted to show how we can play and execute good football,” Smith said.
Although Central Coast’s offense opened the contest with a three-and-out, Barnstormer Ben Nunez recovered the loose football when Salinas muffed the ensuing punt, supplying the Central Coast attack with a second life at the Spartan 27.
Taking advantage of the favorable field position, Smith went to work and connected with Dwayne Ice on a 23-yard gain, then hit Aaron Muro two plays later on a 2-yard out route to the left side of the end zone.
“You could see the support that’s around me,” Smith said. “There are guys making catches left and right and the offensive line blocked great. That’s fun to be around.”
While the Spartans took advantage of a Smith interception at the 7:10 mark of the first quarter, and eventually capitalized with a five-yard touchdown pass from quarterback David Carriedo to tight end Luke Mitchell, the Barnstormers closed the first half with 21 unanswered points in the second quarter, including touchdown passes of 10 and 45 yards to tight end Will Lawrence.
Lawrence, who finished with six catches for 156 yards, later added a third touchdown grab of 68 yards in the third quarter on an identical play to his previous touchdown catch.
“My two long [touchdowns] were the same exact plays,” Lawrence said.
“One of their corners (Tyrone Ward) who played for us a couple of years ago was gone, but I still think we would have done the same thing because we have so many receivers on our team. Maybe it would have mattered a little bit, but I still think we would have came out with the ‘W’ anyway.”
Central Coast’s lead blossomed to 28-7 at halftime when a Raul Munoz interception in the red zone preceded a 12-play, 91-yard drive that ate up 5:49 of clock, culminating with an 8-yard touchdown from Smith to Johnny Walker.
But while everything seemed to be going Central Coast’s way at that point, the Spartans kept the game interesting early on in the third quarter when Carriedo delivered a strike to wideout Tommy Marquez for an 86-yard touchdown.
Salinas would get the ball back just more than a minute later after a Barnstormers three-and-out, and would bring the deficit to within a single score following a 22-yard touchdown pass from Carriedo to Marcos Macias.
“There were certain things where we just fell apart on,” said Korey Gray, who anchored a Central Coast defense with three sacks and a forced fumble Saturday. “We knew what they were going to do, but we took them for granted in the second half and they did what they do best.
“But we were able to stop it, and we just kept rolling from there.”
Central Coast prevented any more Salinas scoring for the next 18 minutes. In the meantime, the Barnstormers increased upon their 28-20 lead when Smith hit Greg Walton on a 53-yard middle screen touchdown pass before hitting Lawrence on his 68-yard touchdown to close out the third quarter.
Placekicker Danny Bettencourt, who was 5 of 6 on point-after attempts, nailed a 35-yarder to give the Barnstormers a 44-20 lead with 9:44 remaining in regulation. Salinas tacked on a late score at 3:54 when Carriedo hit Scott Konen on a 1-yard pass.
Central Coast’s Greg Walton, meanwhile, was Smith’s favorite target, hauling in 10 catches for 160 yards. Running back Derrick Morrison led the ground game with 12 carries and 43 yards.
The Barnstormers will look to keep its winning streak alive Saturday when the East Bay Outlaws (1-7) visit Gilroy at 6 p.m.
With a postseason berth in hand, and the streak still intact, Central Coast remains in the hunt of reaching its ultimate goal: a national championship.
“One goal we started out with was a national championship,” Garcia said. “And that’s the way we’ve got to keep going. Losing to the Islanders (50-28 in Week 2), that was a big one, but we know we can play with them.”
