SALINAS VALLEY — King City and Soledad were the only South Monterey County high schools with football games last week as Greenfield and Gonzales had byes.
The King City Mustangs improved to 3-0 in non-league play with a 28-12 win over the San Lorenzo Valley Cougars, and the Soledad Aztecs fell to 0-3 after a 42-6 loss to the host Aptos Mariners last Friday night.
KING CITY
The host Cougars took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter with a 21-yard field goal. King City responded with a short run by Carson Tidwell and a point-after attempt to take a 7-3 lead. The Cougars cut into the lead with another field goal minutes later to make the score 7-6.
King City completed the first half scoring with Tidwell’s second touchdown, and the successful PAT stretched the lead to 14-6.
Tidwell scored his third touchdown of the game early in the third quarter and JC Navarro scored on a 15-yard pass reception from quarterback Rocky Vasquez to make the score 28-6. San Lorenzo completed the scoring on a punt return for the final 28-12 tally after a missed two-point conversion.
“Very happy to come out of the game with the win,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “It was a sloppy game. We had two touchdowns called back on penalties and overall there were a lot of flags in the game. We need to clean it up next week facing a good Aptos team.”
Tidwell finished the game with 23 carries for 295 yards and scored three touchdowns, while Vasquez threw for 100 yards with a six-of-12 passing performance and threw one touchdown. Navarro led King City in receptions with five catches for 56 yards and one touchdown. The Mustangs’ offense produced 437 yards.
Standouts on defense were Navarro, Rocky Villanueva, Shane Scanlan and Jacob Lugo.
On Friday, King City will host the Aptos Mariners at War Memorial Stadium. Aptos is 1-2 overall.
“Aptos runs their Wing T offense well,” Coach Villanueva said. “They do a good job of rallying the ball on defense.”
SOLEDAD
The visiting Aztecs fell behind by a 20-0 lead to the Mariners in Santa Cruz County.
Soledad scored their only points of the contest late in the third quarter on a 35-yard run by Daniel Garcia and a PAT by Jesus Cisneros.
“Aptos just runs the ball really well and we were shorthanded and couldn’t slow them down,” said Soledad head coach Eric Rodriguez. “We have to get better as we play Watsonville at their place on Friday and play King City in two weeks.”
Gonzales will be back in action on Friday when they host the Seaside Spartans, while Greenfield plays at Marina on Thursday night.
