High School Sports

In 2012, the San Benito girls tennis team advanced to the Central Coast Section playoffs for the second time in 11 years under coach Ed Cecena.

In high school tennis, depth matters, and that’s what the Haybalers had a year ago. However, San Benito graduated its No. 2, 3 and 4 singles players, leaving a void that Cecena hopes can be filled with hard work and determination.

“Sometimes the difference between a win and a loss comes down to simply competing,” said Cecena, whose team opened its season Monday with a 7-0 win over Pajaro Valley. “I think our girls can get to that level where mentally they’re fighting really hard for every point. It’s going to take that type of effort for us to reach our goals.”

Cecena holds a voluntary practice on Saturday, which gives his players a chance to improve their skills and further hone the mental aspects of the game. After all, it takes some serious mental toughness for a player to show up for a Saturday practice.

In terms of goals, San Benito’s top priority is to stay in the upper-tier Gabilan Division, developing players in the process. The Balers return only one singles player — senior Kelsey Slavich — but she’ll be manning the top spot.

Relying more on guts and guile than raw talent, Slavich rarely beats herself. She places the ball well, utilizes a lot of underspin and often lets her opponents commit the errors.

Players who will be vying for permanent spots in the singles lineup include Gwendolynn Fernstrom, Rachel Brigantiono, Cathy Frusetta and Makayla Irving, who couldn’t play last season due to injury. On Monday, Irving rolled to a straight-set win at No. 4 singles.

Cecena is hopeful that all of his players continue to develop their physical and mental skills — especially the latter — because it’s the mental side that often helps a player get through a three-set match.

Rachel Logue, Jessica White, Katarina Ortiz, Leeann Gutierrez and Julia Duggs are some of the top players who will fill out the doubles lineup.

“Rachel and Makayla are two athletic girls who compete very well,” Cecena said. “That’s what you want from your athletes at this level.”

 

San Benito 7, Pajaro Valley 0

SINGLES — Slavich def. Guillen 7-5, 6-7, 11-9 (super tiebreaker as third set); Frusetta def. Rodriguez 6-4, 6-1; Fernstrom def. Kianyvela 6-2, 4-6, 10-7; Irving def. Ocampo 6-1, 6-0. DOUBLES WINNERS — Logue-Ortiz 3-6, 6-4; 10-6; White-Brigantiono 6-3, 6-4; Leeann Gutierrez Julia Duggs 6-2, 6-2.

SAN JOSE — San Benito High football coach Chris Cameron started jumping up and down and yelling “Yes” even before Haybalers fullback Justice Felice received the handoff.

Moments later, Felice scored on a 13-yard run, and the Haybalers were on their way to a 31-14 win over host Pioneer on Friday in the season opener for both teams. San Benito’s victory was even more impressive considering the fact that it trailed 14-4 at halftime.

“We just needed to settle down,” Cameron said, referring to his team committing ill-advised penalties that negated a couple of potential touchdowns in the first half. “We did some things really well (in the second half), and they had no answer for it.”

San Benito’s running game was simply unstoppable in the final two quarters, with Felice (15 carries for 106 yards) leading the way. His aforementioned 13-yard touchdown run — which cut San Benito’s deficit to 14-11 — nonetheless set the tone for the rest of the game, as it came on the opening drive of the third quarter.

On the possession, the Balers ran nine plays that covered 79 yards — on all runs — starting a flurry that saw San Benito score the game’s final 27 points. With the offensive line opening up huge holes, the Balers gashed Pioneer for 267 yards on the ground.

San Benito ran 28 plays in the second half, 26 of which were runs. The Balers basically ran four plays off their run game: A dive, toss, option and option keeper. They adjusted their blocking schemes at halftime, and the result was noticeable.

“We just needed to play better – it was that simple,” Felice said. “With this being the first game, I was a little nervous at first, and maybe I wasn’t moving my feet as well as I should have like the coaches told me to.”

The Balers scored on every possession in the second half, except the final one when they ran out the clock. They took their first lead since the opening minutes of the first quarter on David Stanton’s 5-yard touchdown run, making it 17-14 with 2:24 left in the third quarter.

Chris Blake added a 9-yard TD run and Stanton — who also completed 5-of-14 passes for 119 yards — capped the scoring with a 13-yard run. That came one play after teammate Andrew Sotelo returned an interception 25 yards to the Pioneer 13-yard line.

San Benito’s defense was stout, limiting the Mustangs to 244 yards of total offense. The Balers’ only points of the first half came courtesy of their defense, via safeties.  

Cody McGrew blocked a Pioneer punt out of the end zone for the Balers’ first safety, and Ben Cobb recorded San Benito’s second safety when he tackled Pioneer quarterback Zach Silva in the end zone in the opening minute of the second quarter.

“Some of our guys could have tanked, but what you saw was a group who played really hard,” Cameron said. “Hopefully we flushed some of our mistakes out of our system, and we’ll play a bit cleaner next week.”

San Benito boys cross country coach Jess Morales and his team have a big goal this year – getting to state as a group – while the girls squad is young but optimistic.

Despite some rough waters at the outset of the summer - namely, vandalism that forced the high school's pool to temporarily shut down - the city's recreation division is excited about the addition of a water polo camp to its list of summer options.

San Benito High School graduate Megan Sabbatini has been named to the all-state softball team.

Opportunities to get on the mat are hard to come by for girls wrestlers at San Benito High School and most other schools. Unfortunately, it’s a matter of too few athletes and not enough money as factors keeping the school from operating a full girls team. It didn’t push away wrestlers such as recent graduate Samantha Barrientos, who spent much of her three years in the sport – like all the other girls – competing against boys who were often naturally stronger.

This Video Q&A features Samantha Barrientos, a recent San Benito High School graduate who is competing in a national wrestling tournament starting July 12 in Fargo, N.D. Look for a story this week on Barrientos.

With cramped weight and wrestling facilities, the San Benito High Board of Trustees took one of the first steps in fixing the problem on June 12 by OK’ing detailed blueprints for a new building.

For 18 years it was a familiar sight to see Cody Cameron run around the sidelines at Andy Hardin Stadium. Whether it was in his mother Michelle’s arms or running up to the referee as the designated ball boy, Cody Cameron was always around the Haybalers in the fall.

The 2012-13 sports season was a banner year for San Benito High. After winning Monterey Bay League titles in cross country, boys basketball, softball, girls swimming, track and field and boys volleyball, San Benito had at least one sport crowned a champion each season.