SALINAS VALLEY — The regular season began last week for the King City, Greenfield, Soledad and Gonzales high school football teams. While all four teams were on the losing end, there were some good efforts from the South Monterey County schools.
KING CITY
At War Memorial Stadium on Friday night, the host King City Mustangs put up a strong fight against a good North Salinas Vikings team, falling 21-10 in a game that was called because of an injury with 1:53 remaining to play.
King City started the game with a strong drive and reached the Viking 35. Mustang running back Carson Tidwell took a handoff from quarterback Rocky Vasquez and ran in for a score, but the touchdown was called back on a holding call. The drive ended on fourth down on an incomplete pass play for a turnover on downs.
North High scored the first points of the game at the 2:36 mark of the first quarter on an 18-yard touchdown reception by Matt Ruiz. A Hugo Valencia point-after attempt gave the Vikings a 7-0 lead.
With 10:13 to play in the second quarter, Tidwell scored on a five-yard touchdown run and Carrillo added the PAT to tie the game at 7-7. The score was set up by a 39-yard reception from Vasquez to Carrillo. After not being able to move the ball, Carrillo was successful on a 39-yard field goal to give the Mustangs a 10-3 advantage with 3:44 left in the first half.
The Vikings struck back with a 40-yard touchdown reception to Canelo Gonzalez from quarterback Kainoa Ceralde. A PAT by Valencia extended the North High lead to 14-10.
In the second half, the Mustangs received great field position on the kickoff when freshman RJ Ayon returned the ball 40 yards. The Vikings held the Mustangs to short yardage and Carrillo was sent in to attempt a 42-yard field goal but just missed.
With 10:18 to play, Nico Mora picked off a Vasquez pass to give the Vikings a first down close to the 50-yard line. The Vikings moved the ball, but the drive ended on a fourth-and-two play at the goal line. Providing defensive pressure were Nathan Vega and Rocky Villanueva.
North High scored on their next possession on a pass play, and a PAT gave the Vikings a 21-10 lead with just minutes led to play.
At the 1:53 mark on the Vikings on offense, King City safety Tony Rodriguez fell to the ground after a hard hit, and the unfortunate injury forced the game to be called as both teams were emotional and physically spent seeing a player suffer a painful injury.
“Tony was already at our practice the next day and we are all hoping he will be alright and return to the team,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “We played really well against North Salinas and we had many chances to win the game. This week will be for the megaphone at Gonzales, and we always circle the game with them on our calendar. We want to get the megaphone back with a win and get ready for league.”
Carson Tidwell ran for 84 yards on 20 carries to lead the King City rushers and Kody Lambert had two receptions for 22 yards. Vasquez passed for 74 yards, including the 36-yard pass to Carrillo. Vega finished with 16 tackles and Villanueva added 11 tackles.
SOLEDAD
Soledad fell behind 19-0 to the host Carmel Padres on Saturday but fought back and scored 21 points in the second half to make the final score 33-21.
Aztec quarterback DJ Valenzuela threw a touchdown pass to Marcos Negrete for 10 yards for the first Soledad score and Negrete added the PAT. The Padres scored again to increase the lead to 26-7, then scored their final points to lead 33-7.
Soledad scored on a pick-six touchdown by Nathaniel Flores and the Aztecs trailed 33-14 after the Negrete PAT. Soledad completed their scoring in the closing moments on a 60-yard touchdown on a scramble by Negrete of the final 33-21 tally.
“I was pleased with our efforts in the second half,” said Soledad head coach Eric Rodriguez. “We are a young team and we were able to score against a strong Carmel team. Marcos Negrete stood out at strong safety and on offense and Nathaniel Flores played well at defensive. We play a fast North Salinas team this week at Rabobank on Saturday night. We just want to get better every week.”
GREENFIELD & GONZALES
Greenfield suffered a tough opening loss of 43-2 to host St. Francis of Watsonville on Saturday, while Gonzales played Scotts Valley on Friday and were shut out 36-0.
“St. Francis is a well-coached team and they just controlled the line of scrimmage,” said Gonzales head coach Eddy Ramirez. “When you play against a team that can control the clock, you have only so much time to get something going offensively. This week I think we can match with King City, but it is going to be a game that could be decided in the final quarter.”
Greenfield will travel to Pacific Grove this week to play the host Breakers. Pacific Grove defeated Seaside 14-7 in their opener last Friday.
