A little over a week ago, the Anzar and San Benito football teams were in full soul-searching mode.
After last Friday’s results, the Hawks (1-2) and Haybalers (2-2) discovered a lot about themselves, with resiliency being a common factor.
Anzar earned its first win of the season when Arthur Munoz broke up a two-point conversion in the end zone on the game’s final play to preserve a 36-34 win over North Valley Baptist-Santa Clara.
San Benito came on strong in the second half in rolling to a 37-7 win over Oak Grove-San Jose. Both teams won games they simply had to win.
For the Balers, the victory couldn’t have come at a better time — this is their bye week before they enter Monterey Bay Gabilan Division action next week.
Anzar, meanwhile, plays a 1 p.m. Saturday game against Stuart Hall-San Francisco (1-1) on Treasure Island. The Hawks will be buoyed by the influx of four returning players — Sergio Gonzalez, Angel Jimenez, Jose Casaneda and Fermin Banuelos — who figure to have a huge impact on Saturday.
All four players missed the first three games due to grades, and Hawks coach Luis Espinoza said they’re all key impact players. Gonzalez, who plays multiple positions, will spell quarterback Sam Jimenez at times when the team lines up in the pistol formation.
“He’s even a better passer than Sam,” Espinoza said. “He’ll be more of a situational guy (at QB) to keep teams off-balanced.”
Gonzalez also is the team’s best cornerback, with Banuelos returning as the other starting corner.
“Hopefully teams won’t have as much success throwing on us as they’ve had so far this year,” Espinoza said.
Jimenez’s return automatically makes Anzar a tougher team to run on. The sophomore linebacker is probably the team’s hardest hitter, and rarely misses a tackle. Casaneda, a senior linebacker, also plays sound, fundamental football.
“If there’s a hole for the opposing running back to run through, Jose fills it up in a hurry,” Espinoza said.
Espinoza said the offensive line of Izaiah Ornelas, Cody Fisher and Cody Van Gelder, along with tight end Victor Flores, have come on strong in recent weeks, allowing the offense to flourish.
Sophomore tailback Marcos Galvan rushed for a season-best 185 yards and four touchdowns in last week’s victory, and Andrew Huaracha had 136 yards on 13 carries.
“The win was a huge morale booster,” Espinoza said.
Speaking of morale boosters, San Benito’s win over Oak Grove was just what the doctor ordered for a team that had been beat pretty handily in contests against Palo Alto and Los Gatos.
“We needed to play better and get things together,” said San Benito linebacker Cody McGrew, who returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown. “There was no time for excuses — we just had to get it done.”
The Balers produced a number of big plays, something that was sorely lacking since a 31-14 triumph over Pioneer-San Jose in the season opener.
In addition to McGrew’s pick-six, Chris Blake had a 76-yard TD run and Hayden Alvernaz returned a fumble 13 yards for a TD after teammate J.J. Melo provided a booming hit to force the fumble.
The Balers couldn’t establish much of a passing game — quarterback David Stanton was just 2 of 6 for 27 yards — but then again, they didn’t need to.
San Benito amassed 330 yards on the ground, with Blake finishing with 106 yards on just six carries, a hefty 17.6 yards per carry average.
With the Eagles biting hard on San Benito’s runs up the middle, that opened things up for Stanton on the quarterback keeper. Stanton rushed for 89 yards on 15 carries, Zak Hicks added a 34-yard TD run and Damian Botelho finished with 56 yards on seven rushes.
Although the Balers earned a much-needed victory, they’re hoping to eliminate most — if not all — of their pre-snap penalties and other fundamental issues. San Benito committed a season-high 13 penalties for 105 yards in its latest contest.
False-start penalties and botched snaps and handoffs have been at the forefront of the Balers’ miscues, and they’ll have to iron those issues out as they prepare for the league opener against Salinas at the Pit on Oct. 11.
Balers coach Chris Cameron is confident his team will do just that, as it returns center Caleb Menez for the league opener. The junior standout lineman missed last week’s game due to injury, forcing one of the team’s guards to move into the center position.
“With Caleb back, we don’t expect to have those procedural penalties,” Cameron said. “And overall, the penalties don’t worry me because we’ve never had that many in a game before. That’s not normal for us.”
Cameron treats the bye week as a back to basics week, where the team can hone in on the fundamentals.
“Since we have no game this week, it gives us a chance to fix our own ailments rather than game plan against a particular team,” Cameron said. “And we’ve got several ailments we want to shore up.”
