SALINAS — Concerns over a lingering hangover effect following an emotional and physically draining overtime loss six days earlier were put to bed earlier in the week with lively practices.
Scoring 14 points in the first eight minutes of the game, Salinas looked — well, like Salinas over the last 17 years, scoring early and often in ensuring itself of a 17th straight playoff spot.
Two weeks after head coach Steve Zenk became the school’s all-time winningest football coach, Salinas has secured a school record 17th straight winning season after Thursday’s 49-35 win over Aptos at ‘The Pit’.
“This past week was probably the hardest, yet most fun practices we’ve had all year,” Zenk said. “Honestly, I thought it was our best week of practice, just having fun, playing football, and just being kids.”
Heartbroken after a 42-41 overtime loss to Palma last week, the Cowboys are 45-5 under Zenk in the Gabilan Division, having never lost two straight games in league play in his eight full seasons.
“I was a little concerned about our emotions,” Zenk said. “But our coaches pointed out the positives. Most teams down by 21 points in the fourth quarter start managing a game. Our kids still played to win last week. I thought we carried that into practice.”
The Cowboys (5-3), who close the season with games against Carmel and Alisal, appear ticketed for Division II this year in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
“I’m not worried about points,” Zenk said. “We’re just playing to get better. My pregame talk was that you want every play to be your best play, because you never know when it’s your last play.”
Nine weeks into the year, Zenk has taken a page from a former college teammate now coaching with the New Orleans Saints in limiting practice time and keeping people upright in practice.
“We’ll be in shorts the rest of the year,” Zenk said. “We’re hitting bags in practice instead of each other. It’s been that way for the last couple of weeks. We’re managing bodies.”
Throwing five touchdown passes in last week’s loss to Palma, Michael Andrade accounted for five more against Aptos, tossing four touchdowns and rushing for one in three quarters of action.
Over his first eight games, the sophomore is completing nearly 70 percent of passes, having thrown 23 touchdown passes, with just four interceptions in 180 attempts.
“One of the reasons we run the spread is we get eight guys the ball each game,” Zenk said. “It keeps kids’ interest in blocking when it’s not their turn. Everyone is touching the ball. We have some really talented receivers.”
Andrade connected with three different targets for touchdowns against Aptos, hitting fellow sophomore Hovan Lusk twice on scoring tosses of 48 and 44 yards. The pair have connected six times this year.
Spreading the ball around the field, Andrade found Robert Morales and JP Perez for touchdowns, while getting the tight end involved in the offense, as Madden Eubanks caught four passes for 61 yards.
Salinas, who has scored 40-plus points in each of its last four games, opened up a 42-14 cushion in the third quarter before Zenk began mass substitutions in improving to 4-0 at home this year.
Izaak Hernandez put together his best game for Salinas, rushing for a season high 97 yards and a touchdown, while Kyle Healy came in and hit Sky Becker on a 50-yard scoring strike in the fourth quarter.
Gonzales 29, Marina 28: The minute the Spartans scored, the decision was already made. No one was interested in playing for a tie and potentially going to overtime.
“We decided we’re not playing for a tie,” Gonzales coach Eddy Ramirez said. “We felt good about the play call from my coach. We went for it.”
It seemed only fitting that the player who had gotten the Spartans to this point, finish the job as Jorge Uribe caught the two-point conversion pass from Jordan Askew with 1:15 left in a wild 29-28 win over Marina.
For Gonzales, it was its first win of the season on its newly renovated stadium and field, evening its Santa Lucia Division record at 2-2.
“We told the kids this game will be like shadow boxing,” Ramirez said. “We’ll strike, they will strike. We felt at halftime that we could crawl back into this. Marina hit us hard. It was a dogfight to the end.”
Uribe had a night to remember for Gonzales, finishing with 306 receiving yards and three touchdowns to go along with his two-point conversion. The senior also had a pick on defense.
“He made some unbelievable plays,” said Ramirez of Uribe, who led Gonzales to a Central Coast Section Division IV soccer title last year, producing a team-high 27 goals.
Gonzales, who trailed the entire game and by as much as 14 in the first half, got a stop with 1:37 left in the game to force a Marina punt.
What transpired was a three-play, 22-second drive with Uribe catching his third touchdown pass from Askew on a 17-yard scoring strike.
“The play before, Jorge caught a pass in double coverage to get to the 17,” Ramirez said. “On the touchdown, he just outran the defender, and Jordan put in the right spot.”
While Marina had one more shot to win the game, sacks from Hugo Soto and Jesus Maciel ended the drive near midfield with 10 seconds left.
Uribe added 58 yards on the ground as well, while Askew rushed for a touchdown. Luis Cabada and Joshua Mariscal both recovered fumbles for Gonzales, who visits Harbor next Friday.
The Mariners (5-2) jumped out to an early 14-0 lead on the first of two touchdown runs from Denzel Garvin and an Elan Espinosa 6-yard touchdown pass to Chris Juarez. Espinosa also found Titus Calvera for six to give them a 28-21 lead in the fourth.
