The Hollister High football team was forced to adapt in its latest game when standout running back Michael Reyes went down with a knee sprain late in the second quarter.
However, his replacement was far from why the Haybalers took the 17-13 loss to Palma on Oct. 7 at Rabobank Stadium. With less than a minute left in the game, Palma engineered a left-to-right screen pass to junior Logan Saldate who made his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score; this left the Haybalers 20 seconds to respond.
Up until this point, Hollister had held the lead for most of the game. This would be possible in large part due to junior running back Brayden Watkins, who replaced Reyes after halftime.
Watkins’ impact was immediate; on the first play of the Haybalers’ second-half drive, he would rush for 15 yards. On the next play, he would run for another 15 yards. Preceding these two runs, the longest rush for either team was a 13-yard run by Reyes.
“I saw a chance, and I didn’t want to let the team down,” said Watkins, who a week earlier rushed for 66 yards on 16 carries in a win over Alvarez. “There was no conversation. I knew I was going in, and I had to step it up if we wanted to win.”
Similar to Reyes, Watkins dealt with an injury that kept him sidelined for the first four weeks of the season.
“He has been working hard for a while, he was injured for the first three or four weeks,” coach Bryan Smith said. “He had an opportunity, and he took advantage of the opportunity.”
Watkins would go on to score a 6-yard rushing touchdown late in the third quarter. This score would be the Haybalers’ only visit to the end zone, but it also served as a deja vu moment for the junior.
“It was pretty hype because last year, my first touchdown was against Palma, and this year, my first touchdown was against Palma,” Watkins said.
The rivalry between these two schools is extensive. Last year, Hollister defeated Palma 34-19 to keep their CCS title hopes within reach. However, the animosity between these two sides dates back as far as the 1970s.
Watkins finished with 76 rushing yards on 15 carries, more than Palma’s entire rushing output. Reyes finished with 43 yards on 11 carries before exiting. Watkins attributed this production to the work he put in with Reyes: “Mikey’s been helping me all year, he’s been getting me better, we’ve been both working hard. We’ve been working hard for this moment.”
However, when assessing his performance, he said it was “not good enough. It will be good enough when we win.”
Watkins was not the only junior who played well against the Chieftains. Quarterback Abel Galindo performed well, completing 12 of 16 passes for 100 yards. He would spread these yards evenly across seniors Isaiah Molina (seven catches, 48 yards), Ernesto Zamora and Donno Haertel. Galindo would also convert on four pivotal third downs with throws to the three receivers.
He finished with 38 rushing yards on six carries, including a big 32-yard run to open up the game. Senior kicker Anthony Mendoza was consistent, accounting for just under half of Hollister’s points with field goals of 30 and 25 yards.
On the other side of the ball, the Hollister defense held its own against a potent Palma offense. Senior linemen Chance Brown and Asher Kearns recorded a sack each; both also contributed to tempering the Chieftains’ run game to an average of 2.6 yards on 28 carries.
Hollister’s secondary struggled a bit with Palma’s varied pass play calls. Lapses in coverage led to a 60-yard touchdown throw to Logan Saldate in the third quarter, and Palma was also able to pass its way down the field during the final drive of the game.
Chieftains quarterback Thomas Nunes went 8 for 9 on this drive, good enough for 83 of the 85 yards needed to reach the end zone.
Hollister hosts Alisal on Oct. 14 before closing the Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division season with games against Santa Cruz and Aptos. Last year, the Haybalers claimed a 38-0 victory over Alisal, which currently sits fifth in the league.
The Balers are in fourth place, with the top four teams receiving automatic berths into the Central Coast Section playoffs.
