The faraway looks and soggy eyes said it all—this one hurt the deepest. On the cusp of beating rival Palma for the second straight season, the San Benito High football team couldn’t overcome its penalties or mistakes in a gut-wrenching 33-32 loss in overtime at Rabobank Stadium in Salinas.
“I think we deserved that win,” said Haybalers cornerback Ishmael Medina, who had an interception in the end zone early in the third quarter to quell a Palma scoring opportunity. “This hurts a lot because we were the better team tonight—they knew it, too.”
San Benito (6-3 overall, 3-2 league) had every right to feel it was the superior team, as it totaled 382 yards of offense to the Chieftains’ 231. However, the Balers had two turnovers that led to 14 Palma points, and they committed a whopping 13 penalties for 140 yards.
Meanwhile, Palma (8-1, 5-0) had just one turnover and was penalized only three times for 25 yards. The Balers also had two high snaps on punt attempts that resulted in two Palma safeties. Despite its lack of discipline and execution on special teams, San Benito still had control of its fate at the end.
Forget the fact that a botched snap prevented the Balers from getting off the point-after attempt in overtime, which is how things ended. San Benito had a 19-18 lead midway through the fourth quarter when it faced a third and a long one from its own 34-yard line.
But Hunter Nye, who turned in another stellar effort, was stopped short of the first-down marker as the Palma defensive line stood its ground. Nye, who finished with a team-high 116 yards on a season-high 24 carries, including touchdown runs of 1, 6 and 2 yards, was wrapped up at the line of scrimmage but still managed to plow himself forward.
However, two more Palma defenders came in to stop Nye just short of a first down. On the ensuing possession, the Chieftains needed just two plays to retake the lead, as Jared Torcula, who rushed for a game-high 155 yards on 26 carries, took a handoff and ran untouched en route to a 65-yard TD with 4 minutes, 34 seconds remaining.
It was the Balers’ only glaring defensive mistake that led to a huge gain, but it was costly. Not to be outdone, San Benito answered with a clutch drive of its own, going 69 yards on a methodical nine plays to cut its deficit to 26-25 with 39.4 seconds left. However, San Benito was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty after the play, meaning kicker Nik Hernandez had to deliver a 36-yard point-after kick just to send the game into overtime—not exactly a gimme in the NFL, let alone the high school level.
Hernandez delivered, with the ball barely clearing the bottom post. It was on to overtime, where both teams got the ball at their opponents’ 10-yard line with four downs to score. Palma got the ball first and scored, as did San Benito. But a low snap resulted in the kick never getting off, setting off a wild Palma celebration.
The Balers, meanwhile, could only think what might have been. Medina said the loss hurt because the players felt they handed the game to Palma.
“That’s exactly what happened,” he said. “The whole team never played a game with more emotion than this one.”
The Balers’ first possession was a harbinger, as a snap sailed into the end zone on a punt attempt, resulting in two Palma points. The Chieftains scored a TD later in the quarter and again on the first play of the second quarter, putting San Benito in a 16-0 hole.
But the Balers responded with its first score as Kyle Cameron (65 yards on 10 carries) made a terrific run. Cameron took a pitch and hit the right seam before cutting across the grain, outrunning several Palma defenders in the process. Cameron still had one defender to beat near the 15-yard line and used a stiff arm en route to a 34-yard TD run.
San Benito scored another TD on the penultimate play of the second quarter, narrowing its deficit to 16-13. Midway through the third, another high snap off an attempted punt resulted in two Palma points. But the Balers defense got another stop to set up a long TD drive, capped by a Nye 6-yard run to give San Benito its first lead, 19-18, with 11 minutes left in the contest.
“We beat ourselves with mental mistakes,” Medina said. “But we’re a family, and we lose together as a family. We’re a brotherhood, and we’re going to rebound from this loss. I’m ready to get back to practice on Monday. Let this hurt, because it will motivate us to get better.”
