Meet the San Benito 49ers.
Don’t worry, the team’s mascot is still the Haybalers. It’s just hard to ignore an offense that matched last week’s scoring output Friday night with a 49-34 victory at Palo Alto.
And San Benito did it in style, amassing nearly 500 rushing yards behind the 1-2 punch of Hunter Nye (23 carries, 165 yards, 3 TDs) and Kyle Cameron (12 carries, 172 yards, 2 TDs). It was a sharp contrast to Palo Alto’s offense, which was held to 53 yards on the ground.
“We all preach physicality,” San Benito coach Chris Cameron said. “I’ve been here for 22 years now, and it’s something we’ve always preached. But there’s a lot of things to fix still, a lot of things that I’m not real happy about.”
A porous secondary is the main concern. Vikings wide receiver Eli Givens, the two-time reigning Central Coast Section champion in the 100-meter dash, torched the Balers to the tune of seven catches for 211 yards and two touchdowns.
“We had two weaknesses coming into the game,” Cameron said. “I felt like our interior part of our defense didn’t play real well last week, so we worked real hard on that. I also felt we didn’t play well in the secondary. And we go better at one thing, but we didn’t get better at the other one.”
Early mistakes plagued the Balers (2-0), who found themselves tied 14-all at halftime. There was a fumble at the goal line in the first quarter. Then a pass interference in the second quarter that extended a drive that resulted in a Palo Alto touchdown with 20 seconds left.
To atone, San Benito sent a message with a 13-play, 80-yard drive to kick off the second half.
“We had to go out and make a statement,” Cameron said. “We’re trying to put together some long drives here, and just stay consistent and good and get our kids to believe in what we’re doing. And from last week to this week, you can see more buy-in in what we’re doing.”
After a fake punt by the Vikings (1-1) failed, it took three plays to march 46 yards, capped with Nye’s third touchdown to make it 28-14 with 4:35 left in the third quarter. The lead kept growing when San Benito quarterback R.J. Clark, who earlier in the fourth quarter broke off a 52-yard touchdown run, found teammate Will Gularte in the end zone on a 7-yard pass with 4:30 left.
That sparked a frenetic 2 ½-minute span that featured four touchdowns, including 48- and 27-yard grabs for Givens.
“Hey, we haven’t beaten these guys up here before,” Cameron said. “We came up here and won tonight, so that’s a good thing. We’ll go back on the bus and it’s a long ride home. We’ve got about 75 miles, so it will be a good ride home.”
San Benito 7 7 14 21 — 49
Palo Alto 7 7 7 13 — 34
First quarter
PA — Schoeben 15 pass from Hull (Dorward kick), 6:57
SB — Nye 11 run (Noble kick), 1:29
Second quarter
SB — Cameron 6 run (Noble kick), 4:51
PA — Pike 3 pass from Hull (Dorward kick), 0:20
Third quarter
SB — Nye 3 run (Noble kick), 6:19
SB — Nye 3 run (Noble kick), 4:35
PA — Hull 1 run (Dorward kick), 0:35
Fourth quarter
SB — Clark 52 run (Noble kick), 9:40
SB — Gularte 7 pass from Clark (Noble kick), 4:23
PA — Givens 48 pass from Hull (Dorward kick), 3:18
SB — Cameron 49 run (Noble kick), 3:07
PA — Givens 27 passs from Hull (Dorward kick), 1:50
RUSHING—San Benito, Nye 23-165, Cameron 12-172, Clark 7-87, Gonzalez 4-16, Cabada 1-32, Stake 2-13, Mendoza 1-4, Guevarra 1-3. Totals 51-492. Palo Alto—Caballero-Santana 15-27, Jackson III 9-40, Pike 3-11, Rider 1-(-3), Givens 1-(-7), Hull 4-(-15). Totals 33-53.
PASSING—San Benito, Clark 3-7-0 36. Palo Alto, Hull 15-24-0-309.
RECEIVING—San Benito, Tomasini 1-17, Gonzalez 1-12, Gularte 1-7. Totals 3-36. Palo Alto, Givens 7-211, Schoeben 4-68, Pike 3-27, Rider 1-3. Totals 15-309.
Records: San Benito 2-0; Palo Alto 1-1.
