SALINAS VALLEY — Last week’s scrimmages and jamborees were just a little tuneup for South Monterey County high school football teams as the regular season starts Thursday night.
Greenfield will host the King City Mustangs on Thursday, Gonzales will host Scotts Valley on Friday, and Soledad is on the road on Friday at Hollister.
The Mustangs prepared for the regular season by participating in last Friday’s jamboree that was played at Alisal High School. Other participants were host Rancho San Juan, Monte Vista Christian and Pajaro Valley.
“I liked that everyone got playing time,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “We improved in areas that we addressed after our Blue and White Scrimmage. Rocky Vasquez took snaps at quarterback, all our running backs got carries, and the defense played well. We have areas we need to polish up, but it was a good showing by defense with the second unit defense getting a lot of meaningful reps.”
Last season King City won the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Mission South Division and were 9-2 overall.
“We make it a one-week season throughout the entire year, nothing more important than who is in front of you that week,” Villanueva said. “We treat every opponent with the same respect with the goal of improving each week.”
Greenfield now plays in the PCAL Santa Lucia Division after being moved from the Mission South, where they finished with a 1-9 record last season.
The Bruins hosted Soledad on Friday for the South County Jamboree, which only had two teams participating this year. Greenfield head coach Adam Barcenas was pleased with his team’s performance.
“I liked how our players handled early adversity and finished the game strong,” Barcenas said. “I was very pleased with our depth as they showed a great understanding of our scheme both offensively and defensively. We played Daniel Nave and Angel Gonzales at quarterback, and Travis Ryan and Damian Martinez at running back.”
Barcenas is expecting a good game Thursday night against the visiting Mustangs.
“King City is going to be a tough game as they have an awesome running back (Ryan Tidwell), an underrated quarterback (Rocky Vasquez), and are always well prepared by their coaches,” Barcenas said. “We have to limit turnovers and capitalize on opportunities as they come. Coming off our scrimmage, we are hoping to carry that momentum into the game.”
Soledad head coach Eric Rodriguez rotated many of his players at the jamboree against host Greenfield.
“The scrimmage was OK, but I pulled the starters out after the third drive,” Rodriguez said. “Christian Rodriguez took the first reps at quarterback followed by Calvin DeShazo taking the second set of reps. We wanted to give a lot of the players reps on defense, so there were some mistakes made by the younger players. We will watch film and correct it and get ready for Hollister. We know they got the numbers, but we are feisty and will give them a good battle.”
Gonzales head coach Eddy Ramirez had his Spartans up to the task in the scrimmage on Friday night at Dick Force Stadium.
“I felt like the offense moved the ball well at times, but there were times when we struggled,” Ramirez said. “That’s the good thing about scrimmaging a tough opponent, as it shows you what you need to work on. Overall, I was happy with the effort that our team put out. Jeff Schweitzer, who started at quarterback, moved very well in the pocket, and Jordan Askew had some good catches and some hard hits on defense. Aaron Hernandez ran the ball hard and was able to get outside into open space a couple of times. We also had some good plays from running back Alejandro Rodriguez and Jacob Alvarado, who played quarterback and wide receiver for us. Jose Lopez anchored our defense at linebacker. He was instrumental in making sure that everyone knew their assignment and caused a fumble with his tackling.”
Ramirez added, “It was a good night for us, and I am very happy with where we are this early in the season. We still have a lot of work to do and a lot of mistakes to clean up. We have one week to do it before Scotts Valley visits us at home on Friday.”
