PACIFIC GROVE — The point of emphasis in Alvarez dropping down a division this year was to help rebuild a football program that had suffered nine consecutive losing seasons.
While resetting the culture began last season as a member of the Gabilan Division, the Eagles have taken flight this fall in the Mission Division South.
Assured of its first winning season in a decade, Alvarez’s tenure in the Mission Division South might be brief, as it has its first five-game winning streak in 12 years after a 24-7 win Friday over Pacific Grove.
“We’re just going play by play,” Alvarez coach Ben Newman said. “There’s still a lot of learning here. We’re getting this culture built. You’re seeing the confidence grow.”
While it was just the Eagles first league game, they have knocked off three teams from the Mission Division North during the preseason in improving to 5-1 overall. Their only setback was to Alisal, who is in the Gabilan Division.
“As the coach of the smallest public school in the section, no one is going to feel sorry for us.” Pacific Grove coach Jeff Gray said. “As long as we’re competitive, we’re going to stay right where we are.”
Over the last three years, the Breakers have gone 13-2 over the first half of their seasons, only to struggle in the second half of the year when arriving in league play.
That trend continued in falling to the Eagles for the second consecutive year, who held Pacific Grove to a late second quarter touchdown in slipping to 4-2 overall.
Things won’t get any easier for Pacific Grove, who will visit undefeated Stevenson next Saturday, while Alvarez has another showdown looming with 5-1 King City.
“We’re playing our best football to date,” Newman said. “We’re not playing our best football. We’re still climbing, which is good. We have not peaked out yet.”
For the 13th time this season, the Eagles watched a touchdown called back on Jaylen Ward’s 85-yard punt return. Ward alone has had eight touchdowns called back through the teams first six games.
“I get more gray hair every time we get a touchdown called back,” Newman said. “We’re at times a little over-aggressive. We pulled them in and told them to calm down. Discipline is critical.”
That discipline was on display in the second quarter when Alvarez dove into their bag of tricks, with Roman Garcia taking a pitch and tossing a pass to a wide-open Ward, who sprinted 82 yards to give them a 14-0 lead.
Yet, two sequences took the wind out of the Breakers sails right after Northrop Kirk’s touchdown run cut Alvarez’s lead to 14-7 with a minute left in the first half.
Rather than regroup at the half, the Eagles opened up their offense, moving the ball 50-plus yards downfield in under a minute to set up a 36-yard field goal from Omar Lopez-Esquivel.
The discipline that Newman preached at the half was on display to open the second half when the Eagles executed an onside kick to get the ball back, taking a possession away from Pacific Grove.
“That was a killer,” Gray said. “Our strong point this season is we’ve had good field position. Tonight that wasn’t the case. And we lost the turnover battle.”
An opportunistic Alvarez defense intercepted three passes, two from Ward, to halt two offensive possessions for Pacific Grove in the first half.
“Sometimes as a play caller, you get a feel that your outside running game isn’t going to be as strong as you would want it to be,” Gray said. “When it became a two-possession difference, you have to mix it up some.”
The Breakers, who have made a living all season with jet sweeps mixed in with off-tackle runs, struggled to get to the outside against a quicker and a more physical Alvarez defense, anchored by Julian Hansen and Langi Tulua.
Despite losing arguably their most dynamic offensive threat in Garcia in the second quarter to an injury, the Eagles were able to take advantage of shorter fields, with Alejandro Esquivel finding Aiden Jones on an 8-yard touchdown in the second half.
“They won the field position battle,” Gray said. “Alvarez had a terrific kickoff return plan. When it became a two-possession game, we knew our possessions would be limited. Considering our field position, I thought our defense held its own.”
The status of Garcia for next week’s meeting with King City is uncertain. The senior has rushed for over 2,000 yards in his last 15 games for the Eagles.
“We were nervous when Roman went down,” Newman said. “But we had kids step up and we kept going. The resiliency of this team is what I’m proud of. They are starting to learn the game of football.”
