San Benito up against much better opponent in host Oak Grove on
Friday
HOLLISTER
Final scores don’t always tell the whole story.
Take, for instance, San Benito’s 2010 opening game against Andrew Hill last week. The Balers routed the Falcons in San Jose by a more-than comfortable 55-0 margin, scoring eight touchdowns — including two defensive touchdowns — for its first shutout victory in eight games.
If the final score makes it sounds like a rout, that’s only because it was.
But four failed punt attempts by Hill allowed the Balers to score almost too easily, limiting the offense’s plays from scrimmage in a first game that head coach Chris Cameron was hoping to get more out of.
Although San Benito had two sustained scoring drives in the second half — one from 64 yards and another from 75 yards — the team posted 27 points in the second quarter alone on just five offensive plays.
It was the reason why Cameron, whose team was leading by several touchdowns in the second half, kept many of his offensive starters in late in the game — they simply hadn’t had much playing time, despite what the final score may have suggested.
In all, San Benito compiled 55 points and 220 yards of total offense on 30 offensive plays Friday, or roughly two-thirds of the amount of offensive plays it had during last season’s opener against Hill.
“The only positive from that is that we won,” Cameron said of last week’s win. “We didn’t find out enough about ourselves.”
That will, most likely, change this week when San Benito travels back to San Jose for a match with Oak Grove. Although the last two outcomes between the two non-conference rivals have been lopsided — the Balers won 24-6 last season, while the Eagles won 43-0 two years ago — Cameron is expecting a tighter game than in year’s past.
“They’re bigger than we are, faster than we are, and they have a high-pressure defense with a lot of blitzing,” Cameron said. “They’re blitzing every play.”
Or at least, Cameron added, that was the case last Friday when Oak Grove took on St. Francis, another game in which the final score didn’t tell the whole story.
Although St. Francis, a CCS Open Division finalist from a year ago, silenced Oak Grove by a 24-0 score, the Eagles only trailed the Mountain View school by a 10-0 margin entering the final quarter.
The Lancers tacked on two touchdowns in the fourth to make the game appear more lopsided than it actually was.
“They kind of wore down a little bit … kids playing both ways,” Cameron said of the Eagles.
Oak Grove’s size, speed and blitz-heavy packages aren’t the be-all, end-all of advantages, though. Cameron feels as long as the Balers anticipate the blitz and react to it properly, the team will be in a position to triumph like it did a year ago.
“It’s all sight determined and it all happens really fast,” said Cameron, who noted a step sequence the players go through when picking up a blitz. “We’ve always been teaching it, but now it’s applied practice because we’re gonna see it this week.”
The one go-to the Balers have, and seemingly always have had, is the ability to play physical football. San Benito displayed as much last week against Hill.
“We have to be physical and we have to react to it on the first step,” Cameron said. “We can’t stop, think about it and take a picture, because then we’ll be behind.
“I’m expecting a lot of pressure.”
Oak Grove lines up in a 4-4 defense, planning to stop the run first. But Cameron said the defense is so fast, they can play the pass just as easily.
The team is anchored by Scott Lawyer at linebacker, who also lines up at fullback. Oak Grove also returns several of last season’s stars, including halfback/defensive back Harvey Kaelum and wideout/defensive back Cleveland Wallace.
Meanwhile, junior quarterback Ray Rivera replaces last season’s signal-caller in Ritchie Castillo. Rivera, according to the San Jose Mercury News, was 11 of 27 last week for 77 yards, 59 of which went to Wallace on seven catches.
The Eagles are a run-first football team, though, implementing fly-sweeps and offset I-back formations, only to set up play-action passes and screen passes later on in the drive.
“A lot of different formations with a lot of different motions out of those formations,” Cameron said.
Of course, the key to the game may just be San Benito’s offense and its ability to pick up the blitz. Although the Balers didn’t see many offensive snaps last week, or at least not as many as they would have liked, chances are they’ll get their fair share this Friday night, and from a non-stop defensive attack, no less.
“They kept it coming all night (against St. Francis), from the first snap to the last,” Cameron said. “If we don’t stop the blitz, it’s gonna be a long night.”
San Benito and Oak Grove will square off Friday night in San Jose. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
