Sports

The scoreboard never tells the entire story, especially with the San Benito High boys’ water polo team.

True, the Haybalers haven’t tasted much success this season from a wins-loss standpoint — they’re 0-5 in Monterey Bay Gabilan Division play, having been outscored 83-21 in the process — but first-year coach Brendan Sigourney, 29, loves the fact that his players have remained committed and haven’t lost their zeal for the game.

“They’re always here, even for our 6 a.m. Wednesday practices,” Sigourney said. “I can’t get enough of these kids. They’re great to be around because they’re like sponges, and they take in everything you say.

“They’re really thriving off the lessons we’re giving them, and they can’t get enough of it. They just need more repetitions, practice and game action. We’ve taken our lumps and we’ll continue to take some more, but we’ll get better, too.”

Especially with the team’s top three players — Charlie Garcia, Gus Spurzen and Colton Owczarzak — leading the way. Spurzen, a junior hole set, plays the sport’s most demanding position with a work ethic to match.

One of the fastest players on the team, Spurzen has been a reliable offensive scorer as well. Garcia, a junior two-meter defender, plays great defense and has a howitzer for an arm, allowing him to unleash strong, penetrating shots from beyond six meters.

Owczarzak, a senior driver, is perhaps the team’s best overall talent.

“Colton can drive, set and pass, and he’s the veteran we look for on offense when we need a play to be made,” Sigourney said. “That’s why he’s our leading scorer.”

Traditionally a strong program, San Benito went 2-12 last season and has struggled the last couple of years due to a lack of a solid club presence, Sigourney said. A successful club program is essential for high school athletes and teams because it gives them a structured program to train year-round, or at least a couple of months in the summer.

“The summer club team here died off from what I understand,” Sigourney said. “When you don’t play in the summer for a fall sport, it’s going to be really hard to compete with teams that play all year. Ideally, we’ll get a summer program up and running here again.”

Sigourney, who played at Robert Louis Stevenson and UC Davis, was an assistant coach the last three years at RLS before taking the position at San Benito. Even though the Balers will be hard-pressed to earn a victory, Sigourney knows there’s tremendous value in teamwork, development and attitude.

“I tell the kids it’s not just about winning, but showing improvement,” he said. “As long as we learn from our mistakes and improve, that’s a mark of success.”

The team’s No. 1 goal is to earn a win, of course, and beyond that the Balers want to be more competitive once the league playoffs roll around a little over a month from now.

Instead of being walkovers to a top-tier opponent, they want to give the competition some headaches.

“If we do that, it shows we’ve made some dramatic improvements,” Sigourney said. “I wish our guys took losses harder sometimes, but I love the fact that they don’t get down on themselves too much. They love the game, they compete and they’re determined to get better.”

If the San Benito High girls’ volleyball team ends up winning the Central Coast Section Division I final later in the season, it will know exactly what jump-started the championship run.

The Haybalers (9-5) weren’t exactly on life support heading into last Saturday’s Harbor Invitational, but they needed a jolt to turn around their season. And that’s exactly what the Balers got as a result of going 5-1 and reaching the finals of the Harbor Invitational for the first time in school history.

“If you told me before the tournament started that we were going to reach the finals, I don’t know if I would’ve believed you,” Balers coach Dean Askanas said. “We put all of our chips on the table.”

Did they ever. A couple of days before the team’s first match in the tournament against Palo Alto — the fourth-ranked team in the CCS — Askanas told his players it was now or never.

“I told them that if we did not win the match versus Palo Alto, we weren’t going to get anything done for the rest of the season,” Askanas said. “That we wouldn’t win a league title or anything else. It was a bit of a risk to say something so bold, because of course we were huge underdogs against Palo Alto. But I believe we have a very talented team, and the girls needed to dig deep and do some soul-searching.”

After upsetting Palo Alto in three sets to open up pool play, San Benito rolled to straight-set wins over Ripon Christian and San Lorenzo Valley before pulling out a nail-biting, three-set win over Notre Dame-Salinas.

The Haybalers followed that up with a victory over Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton before falling in the championship match to a superior Granite Bay squad, one of the best teams in Northern California.

Askanas was particularly pleased with the team’s ability to prevail in two matches that went the distance.

“They showed the ability to fight through things when things weren’t going their way, and that’s always a good sign,” Askanas said.

Outside hitters Alexandria Smallwood and Marisa Villegas earned all-tournament honors, and middle blocker Haley Leifheit had a breakout performance, coming up huge against Palo Alto.

The Balers were down a match point at 15-14 when Askanas called Leifheit’s number, and the 5-foot-10 sophomore delivered. Leifheit’s kill made it 15-15, and San Benito won the next two points to take the match.

“Beating Palo Alto was our first good win of the season,” Askanas said. “At that point we were 4-4, and the victory gave us the confidence to not be satisfied unless we made it all the way to the finals. It was like medicine for our souls because we had to show we could play well against a capable opponent, and Palo Alto is an ultra capable opponent.”

San Benito had a full week of practice before the tournament, and it worked on a number of things, including receiving tougher play from its middle blockers and improving its serving percentage.

The Balers received inspired play from libero Allyson Murphy, who time and again managed to dig up balls that would normally land for points. Running a two-setter offense with Erica Chapa and Serena Adame, San Benito’s offense has become more diversified.

However, Askanas said his setters need to be a little more accurate — especially when it comes to sets close to the net — when they set up Smallwood, Villegas and Leifheit.

Talk about upside: The Balers have made tremendous strides just a month into the season, and they don’t plan on letting up anytime soon.

“If we were going to accomplish anything, we had to do it now,” Askanas said. “There was no tomorrow, it had to happen at that very moment.”

And it did.

It’s gut-check time for the Anzar and San Benito football teams.

Both squads lost for the second consecutive week, and neither game was particularly close. The Haybalers (1-2) lost to Los Gatos, 28-14, while Anzar (0-2) got hammered by Woodside Priory-Portola Valley, 42-12.

“I think this week will define our season,” said San Benito quarterback David Stanton, who completed 4-of-7 passes for 71 yards, throwing a 31-yard touchdown pass and rushing for a 19-yard TD. “We have to win our next game, because we can’t have three straight losses. We don’t want another close call (in qualifying for the Central Coast Section playoffs) like we did last year.”

The Balers host Oak Grove-San Jose (1-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, while Anzar hosts North Valley Baptist-Santa Clara (0-2) at 5 p.m. Friday. After Friday’s defeat, the San Benito coaching staff sent a stern message to the players, basically challenging their character.

“We almost looked complacent out there, like it was OK to screw things up,” Balers coach Chris Cameron said.

The Balers had all sorts of fundamental issues — two snaps sailed over the head of punter John Canes — to go along with several false-start penalties and botched pitches. Defensively, San Benito allowed big plays through the ground and air, many at key moments. 

The Balers received another strong performance from running back Zak Hicks, who finished with a team-high 73 yards on 12 carries. Hicks spent most of the game lowering his shoulder and bowling over Los Gatos defenders.

“Zak was fired up to play and delivered,” Cameron said. “It would sure be nice (if some of his teammates had the same intensity and effort).”

Cameron expects a supreme effort from the entire team against Oak Grove, which is coming off a 27-14 win over Lincoln-San Jose. Cameron spent nine years as an assistant coach at Oak Grove, and when he arrived at San Benito, he modeled his program off of the one developed by former Eagles coach Ed Buller.

Sentimentality aside, Cameron simply wants to see improvement from his team in every facet of the game. Despite the plethora of mistakes against Los Gatos, San Benito made tremendous strides in one phase. The Balers resuscitated their passing game, as Stanton rebounded from a 1-for-12 effort in a Week 2 loss to Palo Alto.

Against Los Gatos, Stanton made some beautiful throws, and his receivers ran solid routes. However, Stanton shouldered the responsibility for the offense’s slow start.

“I’ve got to be able to get in a rhythm earlier and start playing better football in the first half,” Stanton said. “We have to get off to a better start.”

The Balers have trailed at halftime in all three games, which doesn’t bode well for a run-oriented team. Meanwhile, Anzar faces a must-win situation against North Valley Baptist, which is in its first year of fielding a football program.

“We pretty much have to win out (to have any chance of competing for a Mission Trail 8-Man League championship),” Hawks coach Luis Espinosa said. “If we can get a win on Friday, then we’ll bring back our team at full strength for the following week.”

Espinosa was referring to the team’s Oct. 5 game against Stuart Hall-San Francisco, in which five players — all projected starters — should be eligible to play after they didn’t make grades in the previous grading period.

“Having those players back changes a lot in what we can do offensively,” Espinosa said. “We’ll be able to open up our offense a lot.”

Despite the blowout loss to Woodside Priory, Espinosa said the team made progress in a couple of key areas, especially the offensive line.

“We asked our offensive line to give our quarterback some time to throw and our running backs some room to run, and they were able to meet those goals,” Espinosa said.

The improved play of the offensive line resulted in Anzar scoring two touchdowns after being shut out in Week 1. Quarterback Sam Jimenez completed 6-of-10 passes for 129 yards, while tailbacks Marcos Galvan and Andrew Huaracha combined to rush for 65 yards.

Huaracha also filled in nicely at linebacker for Pedro Montejano, who is out for the season after suffering a broken collarbone in the season opener.

In addition to the players coming off the ineligibility list, Espinosa said there’s a chance Joseph Banuelos could return for the game against Stuart Hall. Banuelos, a linebacker-tight end, is one of the team’s best playmakers on both sides of the ball.

There’s a distinct pattern playing out for the San Benito High football team, and it’s not a trait shared by winning teams.

The Haybalers have trailed at halftime in all three games this season, and they paid for their slow start once again in a 28-14 home loss to Los Gatos on Friday.

“We played horribly,” Haybalers coach Chris Cameron said. “They (Los Gatos) won the game, but a lot of it came down to how many mistakes were we going to make.”

Unfortunately for San Benito (1-2), the answer was too many. If the Balers weren’t fumbling the ball — they committed five fumbles, recovering four of them — they were committing numerous false-start penalties.

And when they weren’t being flagged, the Balers looked ragged as they had two snaps sail well over the head of punter-kicker John Canes.

It wasn’t a pretty performance by any stretch of the imagination, leaving the San Benito coaching staff to call out the players’ performance and heart afterwards.

“It’s a challenge to our guys’ character,” Cameron said. “We didn’t play well – we took a step backward. In terms of execution, effort and focus, we didn’t have it.”

The Balers trailed the entire way, but got to within 21-14 on David Stanton’s 19-yard touchdown run with 7:10 remaining. However, Los Gatos’ Corey Olivet returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown to put things away.

“That took the wind out of our sails,” Cameron said.

For the second straight game, San Benito’s defense gave up big plays at critical moments, and the offense stalled at key times. At times, though, the Balers looked every bit the equal of the Wildcats (1-2), who are a perennial Central Coast Section power.

At other moments, however, the Balers — who were missing a couple of starters due to injuries — looked discombobulated and out of place.

“We were trying to learn some new things, and the timing wasn’t completely there,” said Stanton, who completed 4 of 7 passes for 71 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown pass to Cody Freitas in the second quarter. “I thought we were better than Los Gatos and could’ve beaten them, but our mistakes cost us the game.”

Los Gatos outgained San Benito, 334-241. The Balers received another strong performance from running back Zak Hicks, who finished with a team-high 73 yards on 12 carries. Hicks spent most of the game lowering his shoulders and bowling over Los Gatos defenders.

“Zak was fired up to play and delivered,” Cameron said. “It would sure be nice (if some of his teammates had the same intensity and effort).”

If San Benito can smooth over its issues, other teams will have to watch out. The Balers are lethal on the option with Hicks emerging as a punishing runner, along with Justice Felice and Damian Botelho being used for runs up the middle.

When San Benito decides to pitch the ball to the perimeter to Hicks or Canes, it adds another dimension to its attack.

However, the Balers put the ball on the ground three times via option pitches, and few things demoralize an offense more than botching a routine pitch.

It’s one of the many things the Balers will have to improve if they want to turn around their season.

Coming off arguably its greatest season in school history, the San Benito High girls’ water polo team hit some rough water just three weeks into the 2013 season.

The Haybalers started the season 0-5 overall and 0-3 in Monterey Bay Gabilan Division play before earning their first win on Thursday, prevailing 8-3 over visiting Santa Cruz.

“It’s really a great relief for the team,” said Riley Drexler, who scored two goals in the victory. “Now we can focus more on playing our game, and feel less stressed trying to get that first win.”

The Haybalers won their first-ever Central Coast Section playoff match last year, beating Palo Alto, 9-8, in the opening round of the Division I playoffs. Of course, that squad had record-breaking goal-scorer Caitlin Shafer, who tallied 213 goals to break the single-season Monterey Bay League record.

Shafer is now playing at Loyola Marymount University, and a team simply doesn’t replace a player who scored 485 career goals. However, if San Benito coach Hayley Vandercook is supposed to be worried, she certainly isn’t showing it.

“Our team is getting better at learning how to step up in Caitlin’s place,” said Vandercook, who is in her sixth year coaching the team. “We lost our top two players, but we have some very good players coming back. I’m confident they’re only going to improve with each game.”

Especially Drexler, who only started playing the sport in her freshman year. The junior utility/two-meter defender decided to try out for water polo because she definitely prefers moving in the water compared with moving on dry land.

“I hate running,” she said. “Even when I played soccer, I was a goalie. I just hate running.”

Drexler scored both of her goals against Santa Cruz in the second period, the first of which came on a breakaway after she stole the ball at mid-pool. Moments later, Drexler displayed a nice touch, lofting a beautiful floater from eight meters away over the Santa Cruz goalie to make it 3-0 with 5:40 left until halftime.

Drexler then delivered the assist on a give-and-go sequence with Erin Hepner to make it 4-0 at the intermission. Santa Cruz finally scored its first goal with 6:45 left in the third, but San Benito ended the period with three unanswered tallies to essentially seal the outcome.

“Our defense is usually good, but I think against Santa Cruz we were really good,” Drexler said. “We got in their passing lanes and shut them down from scoring.”

The Balers received goals from five different players, including two from super sophomore Grace Larson. Hepner, Heather Smith, Hayleigh Smith and goalie Rachel Smithee are expected to play vital roles this season.

Vandercook said the 6-foot-1 Smithee is a Division I prospect, and the junior certainly looked the part against the Cardinals, repeatedly stuffing their scoring chances.

“We’re definitely lucky to have Rachel back in the cage,” Vandercook said.

The Balers need to rely on their speed and keep their passing crisp to move up in the Gabilan Division, which Vandercook fully expects her team to do.

“This convincing win over Santa Cruz shows we’re putting it all together,” she said. “I feel good where we’re headed. Our record doesn’t show much right now, but I have all the confidence in the world the girls are going to be right where they need to be later in the season.”

In a short period of time, Drexler has proven to be a potential breakout star. A key reserve on last year’s team, Drexler has made dramatic improvements in every facet of her game after her club season playing for Otter Bay in Monterey.

And to think: It was a little over two years ago when Drexler had never felt so nervous when she tried out for the water polo junior varsity team.

“At that point I didn’t even know how to tread water,” Drexler said. “I was just learning the rules, and hadn’t swam in a while. Afterwards, I was dead. I just went home and slept.”

Fortunately for the Balers, Drexler’s love for the game only grew from that point on.

The Anzar High cross-country boys and girls’ teams are primed for one of their best seasons in school history.

Both squads are the defending Mission Trail Athletic League champions, and remarkably, neither team lost much in the way of depth.

Although the Anzar boys lost their top runner, Diego Leon, they returned the rest of their starting lineup. The girls lost just one starter as well, bolstering the belief that each squad can have a historic 2013 season.

“Everyone is looking forward to repeating as league champs,” said Daniel Lowell, who coached the program for the last four years before handing over the reins to David Harris this season. “Another goal is to make it to state. The boys missed by a couple of points last year, and I believe it’s going to be a season of redemption for them and a number of runners on the team.”

Lowell said the team’s top three runners — sophomore Nat Hsia-Coron, senior Diego Avila and senior Christian Monroy — are fairly close in ability and will be pushing each other to put up times under 17 minutes.

However, Avila has emerged as the team’s No. 1 runner. Hsia-Coron ran a personal-best 18:11 at the Earlybird Invitational at Toro Park’s 3.1-mile layout on Sept. 7, and Lowell expects his times to go down drastically as the season goes along.

Hsia-Coron’s older brother, Aaron, was a former Anzar standout, winning the 2008 Central Coast Section Division V championship. A year ago, Monroy was the team’s No. 2 runner, Hsia-Coron No. 3 and Avila No. 4.

The Hawks also expect to receive strong contributions from sophomore Charles Winterbottom, junior Joshua Jojosselyn, freshman Jacob Avila and senior Alex Samuels, who was the team’s No. 5 runner last year.

“Both Diego and Charles battled injuries last year, so we’re looking for them to really peak and hit their personal-best times this season,” Lowell said.

The girls’ team returns its top runner in junior Yvette Felix, who has only improved with each training session. From the start of the 2012 season in August to the end of the season in late November, Felix saw her times drop by four minutes.

“Yvette’s sole purpose when she trains is to win races,” Lowell said. “You don’t get that too much from high school kids anymore. Yvette has the drive and is a tough competitor, and she puts in the extra work to be successful.”

Other top runners on the girls’ side include Christina Huerta, Jeniesha Parra, Julia Katz, Carly Zako and Noemy Vasquez.

The girls are also fielding a full junior varsity team this season, while the boys have a partial team, Lowell said. The increased number of athletes coming out for cross-country at Anzar is proof the program is thriving.

“We almost have two full teams with the boys and girls, which hasn’t happened in many years,” Lowell said.

The boys and girls train together, whether it’s at Toro Park, the Juan Bautista de Anza Trail, or around Anzar and Gavilan College.

“Pretty much anywhere there’s a good place to train, the team will go there,” Lowell said.