SALINAS VALLEY — The Greenfield Bruins are in a first-place tie with Seaside at 3-0 in the Santa Lucia Division and the King City Mustangs are 1-0 at the start of the Mission-South Division in high school football.
Greenfield won on the road by a 28-21 score at Harbor last Friday, while the Mustangs opened divisional play with a 34-10 win over visiting Soledad. Greenfield is 4-1 overall and King City is 6-0 overall.
GREENFIELD
On Friday in Santa Cruz County, the Bruins limited the Harbor Pirates to just 36 total rushing yards, while Greenfield running back Damian Martinez rushed for 151 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns.
“I was pleased with our defensive play, especially against Harbor’s running game,” said Greenfield head coach Adam Barsenas. “Offensively, we had a balanced attack. This week we will have to be ready again to stop the run as we need to slow down a very good running back from Seaside.”
The Pirates took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a pass play, then the Bruins matched that score with an 80-yard touchdown run by Martinez and a point-after attempt by Anthony Zuniga.
Greenfield broke the tie with a nine-yard touchdown run by Martinez to put the Bruins up 14-7 after the PAT by Zuniga. Harbor tied the game toward the end of the first half on a 25-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Hudson Bare to Devin Clark.
The Bruins closed the game out with a 14-yard touchdown run off a fumble recovery by Angel Hernandez and a two-yard touchdown run by Travis Ryan at the end of the third quarter. Harbor completed its scoring with a 25-yard pass play from Bare to Ryan Reager for the final 28-21 score.
Alan Hernandez added 28 rushing yards for Greenfield on 10 carries. Bruin quarterback Angel Gonzalez was nine-of-13 passing for a total of 148 yards. Kenny Pajas had four receptions for 85 yards and Paul Figueroa finished with three receptions for 52 yards.
KING CITY
On Friday at War Memorial Stadium, the Mustangs won their divisional opener 34-10 against the Soledad Aztecs.
King City played well defensively and produced points with the passing game, on the ground, and the defense also made it a short field three interceptions.
“We really didn’t put up big offensive numbers but that is because we had good field position,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “The defense came up with big plays with the interceptions and RJ gave us a 17-3 lead in the third quarter with an 80-yard punt return for a touchdown.”
The score in the first quarter was just 3-0 as the Mustangs took the lead with a 27-yard field goal by Bryan Gonzales. In the second quarter, a short drive by King City ended with a five-yard touchdown run by Carson Tidwell. A point-after attempt by Gonzales gave the home team a 10-0 advantage. The Aztecs ended the first half with a 39-yard field goal by Juan Gonzalez to cut the lead to 10-3.
In the third quarter, the Aztecs booted a punt that Ayon fielded in the middle of the field and then ran toward the home sideline and flew down the field for his 80-yard score. The second PAT by Gonzales put the Mustangs up 17-3. The Mustangs completed the third with a one-yard touchdown run by Tidwell and the third PAT by Gonzales stretched the lead to 24-3.
King City started the fourth quarter with a 27-yard reception from Rocky Vasquez to Kody Lambert and a final PAT by Gonzales for a 31-3 Mustang lead. Soledad got on the scoreboard soon after with a one-yard touchdown run by Aaron Dominguez and a PAT by Gonzalez. The Mustangs completed the scoring with a 42-yard field goal by Bryan Gonzales for the final 34-10 score.
Rocky Vasquez had nine completions for 156 yards and Lambert led the King City receivers with five receptions for 89 yards and one touchdown reception. Ayon had two receptions for 33 yards; JC Navarro had one reception for 25 yards and Rocky Villanueva had one reception for nine yards.
“We just need to clean up a few things on both sides of the ball to improve our play,” said Soledad head coach Eric Rodriguez. “I loved our effort in the first half but we fell apart in the third quarter. They (King City) got good momentum with that punt return and we did not recover. Going into the bye week, we just got to execute better on offense, defense and special teams. Our goal now is to get in the playoffs by finishing second in our league.”
Daniel Garcia led Soledad with 88 passing yards and ran for 48 yards on 19 carries. Aaron Dominguez had 17 carries for 51 yards and a touchdown and had one reception for five yards. Ayden Raso caught three passes for 14 yards; Nathaniel Flores had two receptions for 10 yards; Pedro Morales had two receptions for eight yards; and Julian Velasquez had two receptions for 56 yards.
King City (6-0 overall and 1-0 in the Mission North) will host the Everett Alvarez Eagles on Friday in the Mustang Homecoming game. Soledad will have a bye week.
GONZALES
At Gonzales, the Spartans lost their Homecoming game 29-28 to the visiting Rancho San Juan Trailblazers.
Gonzales held a 14-7 lead and led late in the game until the Trailblazers scored the winning points. The Spartans managed 300 yards and scored four touchdowns but got beat on the last play of the game.
“We had key players who kept coming out due to exhaustion from going both ways,” said Spartan head coach Eddy Ramirez. “On the last scoring play, someone just rushed in and didn’t know the assignment. We had less than 11 players in for a minute and by the time we had everyone in, they scored. We’re just a small team in numbers and right now we have seven players from the JV team.”
Offensively, Gonzales quarterback Jeff Schweitzer threw for 228 yards, and 153 of those yards and two touchdowns were to Jordan Askew. Santiago Cuevas added two receptions for 32 yards.
On defense, Jesus Lopez was praised for his seven tackles and a sack. Nelson Cisneros added nine tackles and Andrew Tejeda added a sack. Askew contributed on defense with an interception.
The Spartans are 0-5 overall and 0-3 in the Santa Lucia Division with a road game this Saturday in Watsonville against Pajaro Valley, before traveling to the Monterey Peninsula to play Marina on Oct. 16.
