San Benito’s Jacob De Leon saw a hole on the second play of Friday’s first-round playoff game against Archbishop Mitty and turned up field. It wasn’t until 45 yards later when he was finally pulled to the ground. But lying on the field was a yellow flag, bringing back the large Baler gain. San Benito could never respond from there.
That one play was a microcosm of the Balers’ first round game at Andy Hardin Field, as six penalties for 60 yards stalled the offense and gave Mitty multiple opportunities to put away San Benito. And the West Catholic Athletic League school took advantage.
The Balers never overcame the penalties, and failed to gain a first down in a 36-0 drubbing at the hands of the Monarchs.
“We just got outplayed tonight, its simple as that,” linebacker Jonathan Huaracha said. “We couldn’t put up points and they put the ball up right in the beginning. It’s hard to come back when they are scoring off the bat.”
San Benito’s offense never found its rhythm and gained only 57 yards total. The offense’s inability to move the ball left the Baler defense on the field for most of the game.
“Offensively, we couldn’t get it going,” center Zach Szyndrowski said. “We had too many penalties and too many turnovers. I wish I could turn back the clock and change everything that happened tonight, but I can’t. ”
Mitty, behind its quarterback Andrew Barna, took advantage of the Balers’ stalled offense to gain 380 total yards to run away with the game.
But the game didn’t get out of hand, though, until the second quarter.
San Benito hung on with the Monarchs through the first quarter, holding Mitty without a first down. But Mitty eventually found the end zone on a 50-yard pass between Barna and Jacob Wesson to score the only first-quarter points.
After another Baler three-and-out series, the Monarch struck again with a 30-yard reception by Cail McClenahen. The play moved Mitty into San Benito territory for only the second time in the game. After a goal-line stand by San Benito, Mitty settled for a short field goal to lengthen its lead to 10-0.
But the final two minutes of the first half buried the Balers.
Mitty and San Benito continued to trade possessions until a second-quarter interception from sophomore quarterback Josh George gave Mitty good field position inside Baler territory.
“We couldn’t get anything going,” George said. “We tried multiple plays but nothing was working for us. Penalties didn’t go our way, turnovers didn’t go our way.”
Mitty needed only seven plays to go up 17-0 with a little more than 2 minutes left in the half.
After another short San Benito series, Mitty got the ball back with a minute left in the half and struck again on a 23-yard run by Barna to extend its lead to 24-0.
“They just outplayed us,” George said. “They found the holes where we were making mistakes. We should have played better but you can’t change time.”
In the second half, San Benito continued to struggle moving the ball, and Mitty added another 12 points.
“It was going downhill until the second half where we were going to try and regain our feet, but it just never happened,” George said.
Through the air, the Balers receivers couldn’t keep their footing and on the ground, the Balers longest run was 8 yards.
“They are just a much better team,” head coach Chris Cameron said. “They are faster than us. They are just a better team than us, and they showed us that tonight.”
George, in his first loss as a San Benito starter, went 1 for 10 passing for 8 yards and two interceptions. George led the Balers in rushing with 19 yards on six carries.
Zak Hicks, who was battling a hip pointer, rushed for 14 yards on eight carries.
Mitty’s Barna threw for 221 yards and two touchdowns in the win. The quarterback also rushed for an additional 51 yards on eight carries.
The Balers couldn’t find an answer for McClenahen, who caught five balls for 133 yards and a touchdown. McClenahen also ran for 24 yards on four carries.
“It’s definitely a tough loss, especially going out like that,” Huaracha said. “It was a tough loss, but we had a great season.”
Regardless of the loss, the Balers were proud of their season.
“Overall, this year we’ve exceeded the expectations of everyone,” Huaracha said. “Nobody thought we were going to do nothing. Everyone thought we lost a lot of people, but this group of people showed that we can really play together. We just played like a family and we proved it throughout the season.”
Despite the loss, the team improved each week, Cameron said.
“It’s been a really good season,” he said. “We went through a lot of growing pains in the beginning of the season, but we battled back and grew up from those. We had a chance to play for a league championship last week and we won it.
He continued: “That’s a great, great, great thing. So I’m really proud of the kids because they’ve done a good job and they were out here believing in what we did on a daily basis. We got better on a weekly basis, but getting better wasn’t good enough for us to get through today.”
Cameron hopes the underclassmen learn from the tough, season-ending loss, he said.
“We have a lot of guys coming back, so we had a lot of guys that got to play tonight,” he said. “So they got a bad taste in their mouth, so hopefully they can use that for a positive when they come into the next season – we’ll see.”
