Things couldn’t have started much worse for the San Benito football team in its Central Coast Section first round game with Alisal on Friday. After a penalty turned back a 40-yard run, the Balers fumbled its second play from scrimmage, giving the Trojans the ball inside the San Benito 20-yard line.
But with a strong defensive effort, that early turnover didn’t matter as SBHS rolled to a 28-0 victory over the Trojans to advance to the second round of the CCS playoffs, where they will face Salinas in a rematch of an early-season loss.
On Friday, though, the Balers proved that what happened in the regular season was meaningless in the winner-take-all playoffs. San Benito, which snuck into the playoffs with a 5-5 record, controlled the game with its defense, forcing three turnovers, to shut down Alisal, which earned a school best 8-2 record.
It was the first 10 minutes that truly set the tone for the Balers in the victory. After the early turnover, the San Benito defense stopped Alisal from scoring by forcing the Trojans to lose three yards and attempt a field goal, which was blocked.
At that moment, head coach Chris Cameron knew the Balers had more than a shot at winning, he said.
“We stoned them,” Cameron said. “That was great because it totally changed the momentum. That was a huge boost to us. At that point I knew, you know what, we are going to do a good job tonight. If they weren’t going to score on that opportunity, they weren’t going to score all night.”
And they didn’t. San Benito’s defense was relentless on the Trojans, allowing only 140 yards of total offense and compiling four sacks in the dominant effort.
“We were just fired up,” said Baler linebacker John Canes, who returned a fumble for a touchdown. “We were ready to win. We knew they were a good team so we played our hearts out.”
For the rest of the first half, Alisal was stuck inside its own 10-yard line, as the Balers dominated the field position, entering Trojan territory on all but one drive.
“It was great from our defense,” Cameron said. “The defense played awesome tonight. That was the best game we played on defense the whole season. We shut down a team that has been running the ball really well. They have been real productive. And they weren’t really productive tonight. “
On offense, San Benito didn’t make many mistakes after its early fumble. Led by junior David Stanton, who was making his first postseason start, and Damien Botelho, who finished with a team high 47 yards on the ground, San Benito put pressure on the Alisal run defense all night. Using seven different rushers, the Balers gained 153 yards on the ground to move up and down the field.
It wasn’t until the second quarter, though, that the Balers finally broke through with points. It was the Baler defense that got San Benito in that position.
As the Trojans tried to break out of its own 20 yard-line, Guillermo Regalado picked off an Ezequiel Gonzalez pass down the right sideline. After intercepting the pass, Regalado weaved through Alisal players to the Trojan 30-yard line to give San Benito strong field position.
“Yeah it was a big game changer,” Regalado said. “It felt like we could start getting rolling. I just watched the quarterback and tried to take it. It was huge because we have to pick our offense up. They were struggling. It was huge for us.”
On the ensuing play, Chris Blake sprinted around the right side to bring the Balers to the one-yard line, where Stanton gave the Balers the game’s first points.
San Benito scored again eight minutes later when Stanton capped off a 49-yard drive with a two-yard run to give the Balers a comfortable 14-0 lead at halftime.
“We did good. I think we were able to move the ball pretty efficiently,” he said. “Other than turnovers we played really well. I think it gives us momentum for next week. We want to go beat Salinas.”
Stanton, who ran for 27 yards and went 8-for-11 through the air for 105 yards, added a third touchdown in the final quarter to cap off his first postseason start. The big stage, though, didn’t matter to him.
“I don’t know, I treated it like another game,” he said. “It wasn’t different to me. We are excited. We get to go another week. Hopefully, get to the championship game. We all want a ring. So we are going to work to do that. “
With the game in full control, the Balers added a final score in the game’s closing minutes. After a backward pass fell incomplete, the Balers John Canes swooped up the ball and ran 30-yards to give SBHS a 28-0 lead.
With the victory, the Balers move to the second round to face Salinas, which defeated Fremont 35-0 on Friday. Earlier in the year, the Cowboys defeated San Benito 28-6 in Hollister.
“I know next week will be a tougher task but this was a good game for us to get into next week,” Cameron said. “I’m looking forward to the game. “
