SALINAS VALLEY — South Monterey County high school football teams began the regular season with a 1-3 record last week, with King City emerging as the only team with a victory.
KING CITY & GREENFIELD
Last Thursday night in Greenfield, the King City Mustangs blanked the host Greenfield Bruins, 26-0, to start the regular season with a 1-0 record.
Mustang star running back Carson Tidwell rushed for 150 yards on 18 carries and finished the game with three touchdowns. Quarterback Rocky Vasquez passed for 53 yards on five completions.
After a scoreless first quarter, Tidwell scored the first touchdown of the game with a one-yard run for a touchdown, and the point-after attempt by Bryan Gonzales gave the Mustangs a 7-0 lead. The teams’ offensive units could not produce a scoring drive the rest of the first half and they went into intermission with King City holding the lead.
Tidwell scored on a 36-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, but a missed PAT left the score at 13-0.
The Mustangs stretched the lead to 19-0 when DeAndre Perez scored on a blocked punt with a 15-yard run. King City failed on a missed two-point play attempt. Tidwell scored his third touchdown in the final quarter and Gonzales converted on the PAT for the 26-0 final score.
Defensively, King City’s Rocky Villanueva had eight tackles, including one for a loss, a sack and a forced fumble. Nathan Vega added eight tackles of his own and had a fumble recovery. Deandre Perez and Shan Scanlan each had a sack.
“We need to get better than we were last week,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “We didn’t execute particularly well offensively and we were complacent I feel. That will change moving forward.”
The Mustangs will host Gonzales in the Little Big Game on Thursday night at War Memorial Stadium. Greenfield will play this Saturday at St. Francis in Watsonville at 12:30 p.m.
GONZALES
The Gonzales Spartans were beaten 21-7 at home last Friday in the regular season opener against the Scotts Valley Falcons at Dick Force Stadium.
The Falcons took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Bryce McDonnell to Nick Acton. Scotts Valley scored again at the end of the first half on an eight-yard pass play from McDonnell to Noah Baker. The Falcons completed their scoring with a 15-yard scoring run by Jake Locatelli.
Gonzales scored their lone touchdown on a seven-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jeffrey Schweitzer to Damian Amador. Ethan Duarte kicked the successful Gonzales PAT. Aaron Hernandez and Damian Amador had four catches on the night for 33 yards, and Alejandro Rodriguez added 54 yards on the ground, including a 40-yard run.
On defense, the Spartans were led in tackles by Hernandez and Jeyson Figueroa. Ryan Maciel was praised for working hard in the trenches, as he commanded double teams the entire game.
“Overall this was a good effort for the Spartans,” said Gonzales head coach Eddy Ramirez. “We like facing tough teams in the pre-season, and Scotts Valley is always a well-coached and disciplined team. Despite the score, we did a lot of good things. The good thing is we have film that we can learn from as we get ready for King City this Thursday.”
SOLEDAD
At Hollister, the host Balers defeated the visiting Soledad Aztecs, 17-6, last Friday night. Hollister was a tough task for Soledad as they play in the Gabilan Division, but the Aztecs put up a good fight.
“We matched up great with them, but they have a lot of extra players,” said Soledad head coach Eric Rodriguez. “They had the lead, then we were able to score in the third quarter on a one-yard run by Daniel Garcia.”
Aztec quarterback Christian Gonzalez was 3 of 9 passing for 56 yards and threw two interceptions. As a runner, Gonzalez had 100 yards on 16 carries. Daniel Garcia ran for 14 yards, including the touchdown, and caught one pass from Gonzalez for 20 yards.
Julian Velasquez had two receptions for 30 yards; Ethan Camacho had one reception for six yards; and Aaron Dominguez had two carries for four yards.
This Friday, Soledad will host another Gabilan Division opponent in North Salinas at Gene Martin Stadium. The Vikings defeated visiting Live Oak last Thursday, 41-28.
“North Salinas is well coached on both sides of the ball,” said Coach Rodriguez. “Looking forward to the challenge.”
