SALINAS VALLEY — A pair of South Monterey County high school football teams were victorious in the second week of pre-season play.
Soledad secured a home victory over the visiting Gonzales and Greenfield won in a double overtime at Robert Louis Stevenson, while King City suffered a loss to the Palma Chieftains.
SOLEDAD AND GONZALES
In a low scoring affair Friday night, the host Soledad Aztecs held a slim one-point advantage over the Gonzales Spartans in the closing seconds and scored with time running out to win 13-6, earning the Heritage Trophy.
“My players came into this game determined to bring the trophy home,” said Soledad head coach Marc Villanueva. “We started the game explosively, scoring quickly on a Julio Camacho 24-yard run. As the second and third went by, the game eventually turned into a defensive battle. It became more of a battle of the trenches. We struggled to move the ball on the ground and get time to throw.”
After the Aztecs took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, the Spartans got on the board in the second quarter with a one-yard touchdown pass from Ray Blanco to Alejandro Anguiano. Gonzales was unable to convert a two-point conversion run and the score remained 7-6.
Defense dominated on the field for both teams most of the second half and kept each other’s offense running to the sidelines. For Soledad, Dominik Diaz, Josh Glover and Chris Rua brought pressure for the Aztecs, along with an outstanding performance by linebacker Danny Morales.
For Gonzales, Jason Tejeda had numerous tackles for losses and Ely Cisneros and Steven Santos combined for seven tackles and assisted on other tackles.
Julio Camacho ran for over 100 yards for Soledad and Ely Cisneros led all rushers with 113 yards on 23 carries. Ray Blanco of Gonzales was seven of 16 passing and had one touchdown.
“It was a tough game against a tough opponent,” said Gonzales head coach Eddy Ramirez. “Despite the result, I feel good about where we are at this point of the season. This was a good loss because it gives us the opportunity to fix a couple of things before league play.”
In games this week for Soledad and Gonzales, the Aztecs will travel to San Jose to play Branham on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., while the Spartans play Pacific Grove on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
GREENFIELD
Last Saturday at Pebble Beach, Greenfield defender Gio Hernandez picked off a pass attempt by Robert Louis Stevenson quarterback Fin Mink to end the fourth quarter with the Bruins and host Pirates tied at 28-28.
In the California tiebreaker, the Bruin defense held the Pirates and gave the ball to the Greenfield offense. On their first play, AJ Martinez scored from 10-yards out for the Bruins in overtime to clinch the victory for the visitors at 34-28.
“Our defense went into the third quarter a little over confident after we had taken a 21-8 lead with nine seconds to play in the first half,” said Greenfield head coach Adam Barsenas. “We ended regulation play tied at 28-28 and that was accomplished with the pick by Gio Hernandez. In the fourth quarter, we played tough on defense, got the ball back and scored the game-winner right away.”
Greenfield answered back after the Pirates took an 8-0 lead with touchdown runs of nine and three-yards by Martinez and padded the lead to 21-8 with a 22-yard pass play from quarterback Chris Morris to Naython Hernandez to complete the first half scoring.
On the second half kickoff, the Pirates ran the ball back for a score and added at two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 21-16.
Stevenson scored with five minutes to play on a pass play from Mink to Grady Roth to put the Pirates up 28-21. With only two minutes remaining in the regulation, Morris threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Hector Garcia to cut the lead to 28-27. Garcia then tied the game at 28-28 with a PAT to set up the overtime heroics.
“Stevenson is always a tough game and we knew coming in that they were going to give us their best shot,” Barsenas said. “We are proud of our guys being able to withstand adversity and respond at the end of the game with a big stop and overtime win.”
On offense, Morris threw two touchdown passes and Martinez had three rushing touchdowns. Defensively for the Bruins, Gio Hernandez recovered a fumble and had an interception, Hector Garcia had a forced fumble and Nisael Gonzales had a sack and made three tackles for losses.
The Bruins will have a home game this Friday, hosting the St. Francis Sharks at 7:30 p.m.
KING CITY
On Friday night at the Pit on the Salinas High School campus, the Palma Chieftains (2-0) were unfriendly hosts as they shut out the visiting King City Mustangs (1-1) by a 41-0 score.
“Not many high highlights against Palma,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “We knew it was going to be a tough game and it was even harder going in missing three starting offensive linemen. We opened the game with a solid drive, then we lost two more starters to injury after moving the ball. Zack Lopez had to make an emergency start at right tackle and played well in his first varsity start.”
The Mustangs ended their opening drive with a miss on a 37-yard field goal attempt. Defensively, Rocky Villanueva had seven tackles with three tackles for a loss. Kody Lambert added five tackles with one tackle for a loss and led the team with three receptions for 37-yards.
This Thursday night in King City at War Memorial Stadium, the Marina Mariners (0-2) will play the Mustangs in a game scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
“They (Mariners) like to throw the ball and they have some good skill players to throw to and their quarterback has a strong arm,” said Coach Villanueva. “Defensively, they bring a lot of pressure so we need to be able to execute with a loaded box.”
