KING CITY — All season long King City High’s football coaches and players kept it simple — be more physical than the other team, don’t turn the ball over and take it one game at a time.
The goals of winning a championship and qualifying for the Central Coast Section playoffs were accomplished in the King City Mustangs’ final two games of the regular season against the Greenfield Bruins and Stevenson Pirates, respectively.
On Oct. 30, the Mustangs crushed the Bruins, 28-0, on Greenfield’s turf. Then, last Thursday, they defeated the then-undefeated Pirates, 42-28, at home inside War Memorial Stadium — capturing the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Mission South Division.
According to King City head coach Mac Villanueva, the Mustang team did what they had to do to defeat the Pirates and win the division title.
“I feel that there was a lot more pressure to win two weeks ago at Greenfield because we knew they (Bruins) have been a tough opponent for us,” Villanueva said. “When teams know each other well, that makes every play important. In the game with Stevenson, we knew what they like to do and just played more physical than them. The Greenfield win took the pressure off our boys as we earned the playoff spot that night and just had to execute our game plan against RLS. On defense, we gave up short passes and put lots of pressure on their quarterback and limited their possessions. We held RLS to just eight possessions the whole game. On offense, we kept getting the ball to Carson Tidwell and had one of our better passing performances from quarterback Rocky Vasquez.”
The Mustangs left no doubt who was the better team on Friday as they stopped the Pirates close to the goal line on their first offensive series. King City gained short yardage on their first play from scrimmage, and then on the next play Carson Tidwell did the rest as he took a handoff and ran by the visitors’ side of the stadium on his way to an 86-yard touchdown run. Johell Carillo added the point-after attempt that gave the Mustangs a 7-0 lead.
Stevenson answered back with a 15-yard pass play for a touchdown from quarterback Fin Mink to receiver Zach DeSilva. The PAT tied the game at 7-7.
King City went up by two scores early in the second quarter as Vasquez threw a touchdown pass of five yards to Alexander Macias. Carrillo executed the PAT to give his team a 14-7 advantage. The scoring continued in the second quarter as Tidwell ran for a four-yard touchdown and Carrillo added his third PAT of the first half to give the Mustangs a 21-7 lead.
The Pirates ended the first half with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Mink to Caden Olson. DeSilva added the PAT to cut the King City lead to 21-14.
Mustang senior defensive end and right guard Armando Villasenor, son of Armando and Melissa Villasenor, feels the team was ready and well prepared to play the Pirates.
“On defense, we just wanted to pursue the quarterback on passing plays, stop their running game and not give up the big play,” said the 17-year-old Villasenor. “We got inside the quarterback’s head with the pressure we put on him. Going into the season, we knew we had a chance to win a championship after the North Salinas game because even though we lost, we found out we could compete with a Gabilan Division team.”
In the third quarter, the Mustangs stretched their lead to 28-14 as Vaquez threw a touchdown pass of 36 yards to Alexander Macias. Carrillo added his fourth PAT.
Stevenson fought back to make it a one-score contest with a 13-yard pass play from Mink to receiver Grady Roth. DeSilva added the PAT, and the Pirates faced a 28-21 deficit with plenty of time remaining in the game.
The Pirates stopped the Mustangs on their next offensive series, but Nathan Vega came in with an interception to give his team possession of the ball. The turnover set up an 11-yard scoring run by Tidwell, and after the Carrillo PAT, the home team had a two-score lead again at 35-21.
Stevenson scored on an eight-yard pass play for a seven-point deficit at 35-28, but Vasquez completed the scoring, throwing a 20-yard touchdown pass to Tidwell. The score was Tidwell’s fourth score of the game. Carrillo then added his final PAT to end the game at 42-28.
The victorious Mustangs finished the game with 490 total yards, including 311 rushing yards and 179 passing yards. Tidwell carried the ball 29 times for 300 yards, scoring three rushing touchdowns and one touchdown on a reception.
Quarterback Vasquez had his best game of the season with a 12-of-15 passing performance for 179 yards and threw three touchdown passes. Kody Lambert led the Mustangs with five receptions for 83 yards, and Alexander Macias had three receptions for 46 yards and scored two touchdowns. JC Navarro had two receptions, and Rocky Villanueva had one reception.
The Mustang coaching staff consists of Mac Villanueva, Jeremy Sarina, Matt Mendez, Cesar Soto, Evan Petrovic, Jesus Pacheco and Lorenzo Espino — all King City High alumni — as well as Izzy Guizar.
King City Athletic Director Tige Munoz had high praise for the hard work by all the players and coaches.
“The players have played the price by doing spring ball, going to summer seven-on-sevens, just everything they needed to make them better players,” Munoz said. “The coaches guided them and kept them working toward achieving their goals on and off the field.”
On Sunday, King City was seeded into Division III of the Central Coast Section football playoffs. The Mustangs (9-1) earned the fifth seed and will travel to Morgan Hill on Friday, Nov. 14, to play the fourth seed Live Oak Acorns (8-2) beginning at 7 p.m.
Other teams in Division III include: #1 Woodside (10-0); #2 Carmel (6-4); #3 Menlo Atherton (4-6); #6 Stevenson (9-1); #7 Sacred Heart Prep (5-5); and #8 San Mateo (7-3).
“We would have liked to host a home game, but we’ll just prepare to play on the road,” said Coach Villanueva. “I’m sure Live Oak will have a strong running back, but we have a good one too in Carson Tidwell. Our defense will be up to the task of slowing down their offense.”
