Entering Friday night’s Monterey Bay League Gabilan Division game, San Benito had trailed five previous opponents by a grand total of 6 minutes. That’s half a quarter in high school football. So it was uncharted territory for the Haybalers to be facing their largest deficit of the season against Monte Vista Christian early in the first quarter.
It didn’t matter. After falling behind by two touchdowns, the Balers dominated the rest of the way in posting another impressive 42-20 win. San Benito improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in league.
“We’ve got to get a lot better, but I’m proud of our guys for competing tonight,” coach Bryan Smith said. “A lot of guys got after it.”
Especially after the Balers fell behind 13-0 with 5 minutes, 40 seconds left in the opening quarter. However, San Benito scored the game’s next 42 points to win going away. Smith said it wasn’t just the players who have to improve—the coaches have to as well.
“There were a number of situations where we weren’t ready, and that falls on us to get our guys in the best position possible to succeed,” he said.
Early on, the Balers simply weren’t ready for what MVC threw at them, especially when the Mustangs were on offense. Eventually, the bigger and stronger team took control. Offensively and defensively, San Benito’s linemen wore down their MVC counterparts.
That meant nice running lanes for Hunter Nye and Co. Nye had another superb game, finishing with 202 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries. The senior running back has already eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark with 18 TDs just past the halfway point in the season.
The Balers also received tough running efforts from Eddie Moran (56 yards on 10 carries), Zack Alnas, Albert Lopez and Matt Ramon.
“Hunter is obviously our main guy, but our supporting cast in the backfield played really well, too,” Smith said.
Right tackle Blaize Solis helped pave the way for a San Benito ground game that went off for 325 yards, with a big chunk coming off misdirection and counter trap plays. Michael Camacho, Richard Justo and Jesus De Leon led a defense that bended but didn’t break.
The Mustangs totaled 308 yards of offense, with a decent number of that coming late in the game when the outcome had already been decided. Nye had TD runs of 64, 2, 13 and 33 yards. On his long TD runs, Nye trucked a MVC defender on one and on the other stiff-armed a couple of players before dragging them along for 10 to 15 yards en route to the end zone.
It was vintage Nye.
“He runs violently,” Smith said.
Hunter Raquet was 5 of 10 for 98 yards, including a 52-yard TD pass to Adam Mendoza, a play in which Mendoza tipped the ball to himself in the left seam before racing past the MVC defense down the left sideline. The Balers had another big day on special teams, as Camacho blocked a punt with 9:09 left until halftime, with Jonny Gonzalez recovering at the MVC 2-yard line.
From there, Nye went over left tackle untouched for a TD run.
