Last year Chris Blake played in only three games after dislocating his right knee cap on two separate occasions in the first five weeks of the season.
When Blake was told his season was over—in the week leading up to the team’s game against Salinas—he was devastated.
“It hit me hard,” said Blake, a San Benito High senior slot back, or A-back. “But it motivated me to get back after it and come back stronger so I could have a better and longer season this year.”
In two games, the 5-foot-7, 160-pound Blake has proved that he hasn’t lost the explosiveness or big playmaking ability he displayed a year ago. In last week’s 33-0 win over Palo Alto—the Haybalers’ second shutout in as many games—Blake rushed for a career-high 132 yards on 17 carries, including touchdown runs of 44 and 31 yards.
In a 37-7 win over Oak Grove last year, Blake had a 77-yard TD run. Whenever Blake gets the ball, he’s a threat to go the distance. The majority of his long TD runs have come off on toss sweeps, which allow Blake to use his acceleration and quickness to blow by opposing defenses on the perimeter.
As one of only a handful of three-year varsity players on the roster, Blake is a big reason why the Balers have rushed for 763 yards in the first two games of the season.
“The three-year guys like Chris and J.J. (Melo) and Jose Perez understand what we’re doing,” Balers coach Chris Cameron said. “They feel it man—they just know it’s their time.”
Indeed, Blake doesn’t take anything for granted, especially after what happened to him last year. He deflected credit for his offensive outburst, crediting the offensive line and the rest of his A-backs and receivers for doing a great job of blocking downfield.
The offensive line of Will Gularte, Tristan Yancey, Matt Parsons, Jake Livingston and Manny Zuniga controlled the line of scrimmage, especially in the first half.
San Benito (2-0) plays at Los Gatos (2-0) on Friday in a game that will say a lot on just how far the Balers have come. The Wildcats, a perennial Central Coast Section power, knocked off West Catholic Athletic League power Mitty in Week 1 before rolling to a 35-7 win over Menlo-Atherton last week.
Los Gatos’ Joey Wood rushed for 167 yards against a stout Mitty defense—the Wildcats totaled 224 yards on the ground—but what makes them really dangerous this year is they have an equally lethal passing attack.
Quarterback Dru Brown was a near-perfect 8-of-9 passing for 77 yards against Mitty, and he followed that up with a monster 14-for-18, 206-yard, two-TD performance against Menlo-Atherton.
This will be a mighty test for the San Benito defense, which has been downright dominant in the first two games. Hilmar rarely crossed midfield, and Palo Alto was held to 211 yards of total offense.
In his 20-plus years at the school, Cameron didn’t think the team had ever posted back-to-back shutouts.
Isaac Regalado returned an interception 82 yards for a TD to put an exclamation point on the win. With impact defensive players such as Melo, Perez, Hayden Alvernaz and John Sanchez—just to name a few—the Balers are flying to the ball, making plays and executing their assignments.
They’ll need to do more of the same against a Los Gatos squad that is currently ranked No. 1 in the Northern California Division II Bowl rankings by Maxpreps.com, San Benito is ranked sixth in Division II.
A year ago, Los Gatos had its way with the Balers, pulling away for a 28-14 victory. No one expects San Benito to rush for 300-plus yards against a tough Los Gatos defense, but it will need to sustain drives and produce some big plays if it expects to beat the Wildcats.
Kyle Cameron, the team’s other starting A-back, rushed for 70 yards on 10 carries against Palo Alto, and fullback Hunter Nye ran for 62 yards on nine rushes. Quarterback R.J. Clark completed 4-of-7 passes for 76 yards and two TDs, ran for 36 yards and made a number of correct reads on the option.
Clark looked smooth in every phase of the game, as did Blake, who didn’t play organized football until his freshman year, having competed in roller and ice hockey from the age of 5 to 13.
Blake was good enough to be a starting right wing on the Junior Sharks traveling club team, and the physical nature of the sport prepared him for the demands of football.
“Coming into my freshman year, I knew how to hit and how to take a hit,” Blake said. “A lot of the skills I learned in hockey transferred over to football.”
In the off-season, all Blake could think about was getting back on the field and helping his team win.
“I worked as hard as I could to get to 100 percent,” he said. “I feel great now, and nothing is going to hold me back.”
