KING CITY — A second quarter explosion of 28 points highlighted the King City Mustangs 49-0 win over the Pacific Grove Breakers on Friday night at War Memorial Stadium. The victory has the Mustangs at 4-1 in the Mission Trail Athletic League and ahead of second place Scotts Valley and Soledad at 3-1.
King City has not been to the Central Coast Section football playoffs since 2007 and with one game remaining to play on their schedule have a chance to earn a playoff spot and possibly a share of the league title.
King City has not won an MTAL football championship since the 1983-1984 season when they shared a piece of the title with the Carmel Padres. To assure themselves a CCS berth and MTAL crown the Mustangs will need to defeat the Padres on Saturday in Carmel.
“As a football team we are good to go right now,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “Against Pacific Grove and for the last two weeks we have gotten our quarterback and offense running up to speed. We expect our quarterbacks to be able to run the offense out there and Luis Luna has responded by doing everything we asked of him. We had some great plays on offense and defensively Clay Barbree had three sacks and a fumble recovery and we received strong play from our linebackers Ponch Jimenez and Alex Villasenor. Saturday at Carmel I expect a physical game as we both have offenses that can score points but we also both play well on defense. Carmel has had two weeks to prepare for us and we have to be ready for anything.”
The Mustangs built a 14-0 first quarter lead with a four-yard touchdown run by Barbree, followed by a five-yard touchdown reception from Luna to Luis Briseno. Exchange student Max Pallas converted on the PAT’s. In the second quarter Briseno scored his second touchdown of the contest on a 31-yard reception from Luna. Another PAT by Pallas padded the Mustang advantage to 21-0.
On their next drive Luna displayed some speed with a 35-yard touchdown run. The PAT by Pallas had the Mustangs leading by a commanding 28-0 tally. Barbree took his turn as a game-breaker the rest of the first half as he scored on a 58-yard pass from Luna and ran in a touchdown from nine-yards that built the lead to 42-0 heading into halftime.
King City completed its scoring outburst with an 11-yard touchdown run by Shea Martin in the third quarter for the final 49-0 score. The lead allowed Villanueva to keep the ball on the ground with eight ball carriers.
Offensively the Mustangs finished with 206 rushing yards and 196 passing yards for a total of 402 total yards. Luna completed had a great night passing as he completed 11 of 13 pass attempts and three touchdowns. Barbree led King City with 114 yards on five receptions and scored one touchdown a pass play and two touchdowns on pass plays. Briseno caught two passes for 36 yards and two touchdowns, Isaias Gonzales had three receptions for 34 yards, and Joseph Salcido caught one pass for 12 yards.
Luna was the leading rusher with 87 yards on five carries with one rushing touchdown. Barbree had three rushes for 18 yards and two touchdowns and Christian Rose rushed for 48 yards on 11 carries. Also contributing with rushing yardage were Dylan Oliveros (two rushes for 19 yards); Matt Morales (two for 17 yards); Martin (3 for 11 and one touchdown); Cedrick Perez (two for four yards); and Aaron Leonard (one for two yards).
The King City Bronco lost by a 20-0 score against the Breakers.
“The team (Broncos), played arguably its best game of the season,” said Bronco head coach Evan Petrovic. “From the first whistle to the last the boys played with great effort and started making more plays that mistakes.”
