The San Benito High football team earned the No. 3 seed in the
Central Coast Section Division I Championships on Sunday and will
square off against No. 6 Independence in the opening round next
Friday.
SAN JOSE
The San Benito High football team earned the No. 3 seed in the Central Coast Section Division I Championships on Sunday and will square off against No. 6 Independence in the opening round next Friday.
The first-round matchup will be held at Andy Hardin Stadium in Hollister. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
The 76ers enter the postseason at 8-2 and are winners of their last four games, including victories over Evergreen Valley (55-6), Branham (51-33), Gunderson (48-20) and Willow Glen (27-14).
On Oct. 15, Independence lost to Lincoln, 28-21. The team’s other loss of the season came in Week 0, when Piedmont Hills defeated the Sixers 6-0.
Piedmont Hills (8-2), meanwhile, earned the No. 1 seed in the Division I postseason, but appear in the opposite bracket of the Balers.
Piedmont Hills will play No. 8 Menlo-Atherton (4-6) in next Friday’s opening round, while No. 4 Milpitas (6-3-1) and No. 5 Salinas (6-3-1) will square off as well.
The winner of San Benito-Independence game will advance to the semifinal round at San Jose City College to take on the winner between No. 7 Homestead (6-4) and No. 2 Santa Teresa (7-3).
San Benito and Independence met last year in the CCS playoffs. San Benito, which was coming off back-to-back losses to close out the regular season last year, still managed to defeat the visiting Sixers at home, 13-9.
San Benito then defeated Salinas 14-13 in the semifinals before falling to Milpitas 28-10 in the Division I title game.
This year, the Balers enter the postseason coming off a loss — last Friday’s 24-21 defeat to Palma. It also enters the postseason with question marks at the quarterback position.
While starting quarterback Trevor Fabing sat out the first two postseason games last year, handing over duties to backup and then-junior Tyler Decker, Decker (knee) sat out last Friday’s game against Palma, relinquishing duties to backup Michael Bocksnick.
However, Bocksnick came out of the game in the second half, and third-string quarterback Garrett Avina took over. Fourth-stringer Robert Soto also saw action in San Benito’s final drive.
After the game, head coach Chris Cameron was unsure as to who would be starting at the signal-caller position this week.
