Often times, a football game is won on sheer will, strength and determination. Friday night, San Benito High simply out-muscled host Los Gatos en route to a 35-14 victory. The Haybalers improved to a perfect 3-0 leading up to its final non-league game against Wilcox.
Against a team that is known for its toughness, San Benito won the battle on the line of scrimmage in defeating Los Gatos for the second straight year.
“It’s a big boy win, absolutely,” Balers coach Bryan Smith said. “Our guys came out and fought extremely hard and physical. Our team is built for this type of game.”
The Balers won despite a bad start to the practice week.
“We didn’t have our best week of practice,” Smith said. “A couple of guys didn’t show up on Monday to our Labor Day practice, so they didn’t dress and suit up (for the game). The tempo kind of set itself from there.”
Hunter Nye, the team’s outstanding senior running back, said the team had to forget about the less-than-ideal circumstances and plow ahead. Nye certainly did his part, rushing for a career-high 230 yards on 22 carries, including touchdown runs of 7, 74 and 48 yards.
“We just had to flush it out as a bad day,” said Nye, who ran with his typical ferocity, breaking several tackles throughout the game. “Everyone has a bad day—it happens and you forget about it. We had a tough week of practice, and we knew to beat this team we had to play our best. That’s what we did tonight.”
On his long TD runs, Nye had Evan Weatherly paving the way for one score and Blaize Solis getting downfield to spring Nye into the end zone on another.
“These runs don’t happen without my offensive line,” Nye said. “I’ve gotten faster and better with my cuts. Our line has also gotten stronger, quicker, faster and they’re big, meaty guys.”
Once again, the Balers played well in all three facets of the game: offense, defense and special teams. They totaled 340 yards of offense to the Wildcats’ 215. The defense was stout after giving up a couple of big pass plays in the first half. Los Gatos quarterback Kyle Reid was nearly perfect in the first two quarters, completing 9 of 10 passes for 176 yards, including TD throws of 65 and 23 yards.
However, the Balers held Los Gatos to a paltry 45 yards of offense after halftime.
A week after setting the school’s all-time interception record with 12, cornerback Isaac Regalado picked off two more passes after he got beat on the Wildcats’ second TD coming in the second quarter.
That gave Los Gatos a 14-7 advantage after San Benito had taken an early lead, and now it was up to the Balers to respond. They did and then some, scoring the final 28 points to win going away. San Benito unleashed a potent pass rush in the second half, sacking Reid seven times.
Michael Camacho had three sacks, and Marcos Flores, Jonny Gonzalez, Richard Justo and Anthony Delgado had one sack each, all coming in the final two quarters. Albert Lopez had a pair of 1-yard TD runs for the Balers, who once again showed a resiliency to post a come-from-behind victory.
“We rallied around each other and stood together,” Smith said.
Whether it was a ferocious pass rush or Regalado being a ball hawk, the San Benito defense overcame a shaky start and finished strong. After Reid threw TD passes of 65 and 23 yards to propel the Wildcats to a 14-7 lead in the second quarter, the Balers scored four times, three by Nye and one by Lopez to win going away.
Hunter Raquet played another ultra clean game for San Benito, finishing 5 of 8 for 111 yards. Raquet made some big-time throws, with a 59-yard completion to Regalado and a 25-yard play to Zack Alnas.
