SALINAS VALLEY — The final weeks of football are winding down as Greenfield, Gonzales and Soledad face two more games on the Pacific Coast Athletic League schedule.
SOLEDAD & GREENFIELD
Trailing 14-7 to the visiting Greenfield Bruins with just 3:36 to play, the Soledad Aztecs scored 14 points to defeat the Bruins 21-14 in front of an excited home crowd.
The win was the Aztecs’ third straight Mission Division victory, while the Bruins lost their sixth consecutive game. Soledad is 3-1 in the division and 5-3 overall, and Greenfield fell to 0-4 in the division and 2-6 overall.
The game was scoreless in the first half until Julio Camacho scored a two-yard touchdown to give Soledad a 6-0 lead. An Ivan Gayton point-after attempt made the score 7-0.
A touchdown run by AJ Martinez and PAT by Hector Garcia tied the game for Greenfield at 7-7 late in the second quarter.
After the teams played to a scoreless third quarter, Greenfield took the lead at 14-7 with a short touchdown run by Martinez and Garcia PAT with just 3:36 left in the contest.
After mounting a quality drive after the punt, Soledad — behind the leadership of quarterback DJ Valenzuela and Camacho at running back — got the Aztecs down to the red zone. With 1:17 showing on the clock, a pass from Valenzuela found Joshua Grover open on the home sideline for a seven-yard touchdown.
The Aztecs did not hesitate going for the tie, and Gayton was successful on the PAT to tie the game at 14-14.
The Soledad defense rose to the occasion as they pressured the Bruins and held them to limited yardage to force a punt.
“Greenfield is very crisp in running the ball,” said Coach Villanueva. “Their quarterback (Naythen Hernandez) is very athletic, but we were able to keep him from getting a drive going and they had to punt the ball to us.”
On the punt, Soledad return man Gio Gallegos caught the ball and initially ran toward the Greenfield sideline, then cut up the field to the middle and outran the pursuing Bruins for a 65-yard touchdown. The PAT by Gaytan had the host team up 21-14 with under a minute to play.
Greenfield had the ball with very little time left but could not move on the their last set of downs, and the game clock ran out with the Bruins on their side of the field.
Camacho led Soledad with 104 yards on 20 carries and is now at 1,000 yards for the season, becoming the fifth Soledad running back to achieve that goal. Valenzuela threw for 160 yards and threw the touchdown pass to Grover.
Soledad will have a showdown for second place in the division this Saturday at Rabobank in Salinas, as a win keeps the two teams in contention for a Central Coast Section playoff berth.
GONZALES
Trailing 7-0 did not sit right with the Gonzales High football team last Saturday against the host Pajaro Valley Grizzlies. The Spartans regrouped in the second half and outscored the Grizzlies 28-7 to earn a 28-13 road game win.
“At halftime we did not panic, we trusted ourselves and embraced the process,” said Gonzales head coach Eddy Ramirez. “We knew we just had to keep working and good things would happen. We had a good week of practice and we knew we were ready and we just needed to execute.”
The second half scoring flurry from Gonzales included a 78-yard touchdown from quarterback Ray Blanco to Tony Garcia; a 43-yard touchdown run by Garcia; a two-yard touchdown run by Juan Luis Arriola; and a 43-yard touchdown pass on a fake punt from Jacob Hernandez to Gabriel Barragan.
Defensively, Dominic Montiel blocked a field goal attempt, and Jason Tejeda blocked a punt by tackling the kicker before he could attempt the kick.
Coach Ramirez praised defensive ends Joshua Mariscal and Tony Garcia and Montiel for commanding double teams that allowed others to put pressure and stop Pajaro Valley.
“With playoffs out of the picture we’re playing for Spartan Pride now,” he said. “We are playing for the Big G on our helmets. We’re playing unselfish and we are dangerous right now. We don’t look past anyone and take it one game at a time now. We’re excited about finally playing a Friday night game this week at Marina.”
Gonzales is now 2-2 in the Santa Lucia Division and 4-4 overall.
