The final score of Friday’s clash with Palo Alto might indicated a 40-23 loss for the San Benito football team, but the second game of the 2012 season was much closer than the final score for the Balers.
San Benito led 21-20 midway through the third quarter, only to see Palo Alto tally 20 unanswered points in the last quarter of play to squash any chance of a San Benito upset.
Without starting quarterback Josh George, San Benito traded explosive plays all night with the highly-touted Vikings led by junior quarterback Keller Chryst. But the Vikings, coming off a 2011 appearance in the Central Coast Section Open Division championship game, showed exactly why they are expected to be among the best teams in the section.
It took some time, though, for the Vikings to pull away from the Balers, who showed toughness in the loss.
“I’m really proud of them,” SBHS head coach Chris Cameron said. “They battled. I thought we played really well. I told them, the score is not indicative of how they played. It was really good high school football game.”
The two teams traded the lead five times over the second and third quarters before Palo Alto finally made its stand.
“We played well,” Cameron said. “We took the lead. But every time we took the lead, they would come right back down … We had a good week of practice. And the kids played really hard. There are a lot of positive things.”
With Palo Alto up 26-21 and San Benito threatening to take the lead back early in the fourth quarter, Palo Alto changed the momentum of the game. San Benito looked to be in control, entering the Vikings’ 10-yard line after a 57-yard passing play from quarterback David Stanton to Rob Soto to close the third quarter. After the quarter change, though, San Benito struggled to move forward.
After two running plays stalled, and pressure got to Stanton on the third-down pass play, San Benito lined up to kick a 26-yard field goal to pull within two points. But things changed quickly for the Balers when the snap skipped into the grass, turning the ball over to Palo Alto.
It was the last time San Benito would threaten to score on Palo Alto.
On the arm of Chryst, who finished 12-for-26 with 211 yards passing, and the strong running of senior Matt Tolbert, Palo Alto struck twice for touchdowns in the final seven minutes to put the game out of reach.
Overall, despite constant pressure by the Jorge Perez, who had two sacks, led Balers’ defense, Chryst found time to throw downfield. Tolbert controlled the ground game for the Vikings, rushing for 205 yards on 16 carries.
Throughout the night, though, San Benito’s offense showed an explosive spark. In his first start at the varsity level, Stanton was composed in the pocket despite heavy pressure from the Vikings. Stanton finished the game throwing for 139 yards while completing seven of his 15 attempts.
“I thought David played great,” Cameron said. “He played really well. He did a good job.”
Stanton threw for three plays for over 30 yards in the loss, as San Benito attacked the middle of the Viking defense.
“I just played with confidence,” he said. “I just played like I do in practice.”
San Benito also had success on the ground, as Paris Edwards finished with a pair of touchdown runs and Zak Hicks carried the load with 74 yards on 13 carries. Overall, eight Balers rushed the ball Friday, showcasing a wide-open offensive ground attack.
“Offensively, the kids did a lot of good things,” Cameron said.
San Benito ‘s offense gained 355 yards in the loss. The success is something the team will build from as the season continues, Stanton said.
“This boosts our confidence, because we know we can stick with talented teams like this,” he said. “We can move forward from this.”
Look for more from Friday’s game in Tuesday’s Free Lance.
