To come away with a victory in San Benito’s first game in the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs over Archbishop Mitty, the Balers (7-2-1) have to do something they’ve done all year – stop the run.
Against West Catholic Athletic League opponent Mitty, it won’t be so easy.
Mitty (6-3-1) has two backs that have rushed for over 400 yards in the season. Also, Mitty’s quarterback Andrew Barna went 81-144 for 1609 yards in the season.
Defensively, the Balers should be up for the challenge.
“Our main goal is to get three-and-outs and get the offense on the field as fast as possible,” Quarterback and safety Josh George said. “We want to give the offense an opportunity to score – that’s basically it. Try to stop them on their first down and make them go a long way on second and third down.”
George, for the fourth time this year, will play double duty for the Balers. The sophomore will start at his safety position and quarterback the offense for injured Michael Bocksnick, who broke is leg against Palma.
George has gone 3-0 in those games, with wins over Salinas, Alisal and Palma. Counting his freshman year, George has not lost a high school game.
“Josh has already been successful this year, so let’s go play,” head coach Chris Cameron said.
And with seven wins in a row, Baler confidence is at a season high.
“Its got to be good,” Cameron said. ” We have to feel like we can win. We aren’t giving up any points so things got to be going good.”
Cameron hopes the crowd support will give the team an even bigger boost.
“It would be nice to .. we’ve had games here where we packed this place,” he said. “It would be nice to pack the stands. These guys are coming a long ways to get here and the vast majority of the Mitty folks that are coming have never been to Hollister before … it would be nice to a have big hometown crowd cheering us on.”
