Through the first three games of the season, the San Benito High football team controlled the line of scrimmage by playing a physical style that has come to define the program. On Friday night, however, host Wilcox gave the Haybalers a taste of their own medicine.
The Chargers took the game’s opening drive and went 75 yards on 10 plays, a foreshadowing of things to come. Not surprisingly, the Balers were never able to mount a serious charge in a 35-14 loss. San Benito opens up league play at Salinas next week.
“They just kicked our butt—there’s no other way to put it,” Balers coach Chris Cameron said. “I told our guys we’re really not that good and we have a lot of problems to fix, and they really exposed a lot of those things tonight.”
Wilcox’s linemen were quicker off the ball than their San Benito (3-1) counterparts, and the Chargers’ execution was far superior. The Chargers (3-0) never trailed, jumping out to a 14-0 lead before the Balers got on the board on Hunter Nye’s 48-yard touchdown run.
However, Wilcox ran off the next 14 points to take all of the suspense out of the contest. San Benito made a late push with backup quarterback Hunter Raquet, who did an admirable job filling in the second half for starter R.J. Clark, who was plagued by a bad hamstring all week.
Raquet completed 9-of-11 passes for 83 yards, including a 5-yard TD pass to Dante Tomasini that brought the Balers to within 28-14 with 7 minutes, 38 seconds left in the third quarter. After Wilcox answered with a TD of its own, San Benito was marching down the field before Raquet threw an interception in the end zone.
It was the junior’s only glaring mistake in a sparkling debut that saw him play with poise and display some strong physical skills.
“That was one of the few positives we had, that Hunter played well,” Cameron said.
Both Hunters played well. Nye had another huge game, rushing for a game-high 140 yards on 17 carries. At 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, Nye has been a force to be reckoned with this season, repeatedly ripping off huge chunks of yardage and breaking tackles in the process.
“The offensive line is providing some great blocks, and I have to do more than just break one tackle,” he said. “But today was a tough one. After going 3-0, I guess we were a little too confident. Obviously we had a big game last week (21-14 win over Los Gatos) and came out real confident, but couldn’t get it done tonight.”
Clark had 71 yards on just four carries, a result of two of his runs going for 44 and 42 yards. But the Balers couldn’t establish enough of an offensive rhythm to keep up with a Chargers offense that went off for 435 yards of total offense.
“It’s not a good thing what happened tonight, but I always said you learn more when you lose than when you win,” Cameron said. “Now our guys know we’re not that good. I’d rather have a victory before league, but sometimes as we’ve shown over the years that if you get beat up a bit and take some tough losses, it could bring you together. If guys aren’t pointing fingers at each other, then usually something positive happens later on. But it’s a battle to get there, so we have to really grind on that part.”
Game Box
San Benito 0 7 7 0—14
Wilcox 7 21 0 7—35
Scoring summary
W—Andrade 27 run (Revoredo kick)
W—Rodriguez 26 pass from Turituri (Revoredo kick)
S—Nye 48 run (Miranda kick)
W—Turituri 64 run (Revoredo kick)
W—Chavez 24 run (Revoredo kick)
S—Tomasini 5 pass from Raquet (Miranda kick)
W—Hern 55 pass from Andrade (Miranda kick)
RUSHING (carries-yards): SB—Nye 17-140, Clark 4-71, Cameron 6-20, Gonzalez 1-1, Starke 3-6, Guevara 1-7, Green 1-2, Raquet 2-9, team 1-(-10). Totals 36-230. WILCOX—Turituri 14-109, Talifinefeuiaki 2-14, Herrera 12-61, Chavez 4-33, Saulus 1-4, Andrade 12-103. Totals 45-294. PASSING (comp-att-yds-td-int): SB—Clark 1-2-10-0-0, Raquet 9-11-83-1-1. RECEIVING (catches-yards): SB—Gonzalez 1-10, Gularte 3-39, Tomasini 2-11, Starke 1-7, Rodriguez 3-26. Totals 10-93. WILCOX—Rodriguez 2-37, Hernandez 1-11, Turituri 2-18, Baddo 1-20. Totals 7-141. TOTAL OFFENSE: SB 230-93-323. WILCOX 294-141-435.
