On its first play from scrimmage, San Benito found the end zone when Hunter Raquet hooked up with Adam Mendoza for a 22-yard touchdown. That pretty much summed up the Haybalers’ 45-0 win over Christopher Friday in a Monterey Bay League Gabilan Division contest.
San Benito (7-0 overall, 3-0 league) scored early, often and at will. It all made up for a long night for the Cougars (1-5, 0-2), who only got inside the San Benito 20-yard line one time for the entire game.
“The guys did a great job of preparing for this game and taking care of business,” Balers coach Bryan Smith said. “We worked on a number of different things this week in practice, and to see it show up in the game is pretty special.”
The Balers, who needed just one half to score 45 points, totaled 365 yards of offense to the Cougars’ 197, and things got so one-sided that a running clock was implemented in the fourth quarter. Balers senior Hunter Nye had another outstanding game, rushing for a game-high 107 yards on just six carries for a video game-like 17.8-yards per carry average.
He also had TD runs of 12 and 64 yards. Carson Schmuckle, a Salinas-transfer who was making his San Benito debut, added 74 yards on eight carries. Raquet was a perfect 3-of-3 passing for 70 yards. The senior signal caller hooked up with Gio Giannotta for a 33-yard TD strike with 10 minutes, 21 seconds left in the second quarter.
Giannotta ran a nice route over the middle, where Raquet him in stride before Giannotta ran away from the Christopher defense en route to the end zone. Ryan Adamkiewicz was one of the few bright spots for Christopher, as he completed 15-of-29 passes for 147 yards with one interception.
Adamkiewicz, who was under duress all game long, nonetheless showed strong pocket awareness and was able to scramble for yardage when he wasn’t being sacked. Balers senior Michael Camacho had a career-tying best four sacks, all in the first half when they built a 45-0 lead.
Christopher tight end Jason Scirigione had seven receptions for 61 yards. Balers cornerback Isaac Regalado extended his school record for career interceptions, picking off.
