SALINAS — Showered with a bucket of ice water to celebrate his birthday, what most didn’t realize was that Steve Zenk also tied the Salinas school record for wins as a football coach.
Zenk wasn’t thinking about it either until his phone lit up with a message from former Salinas coach Steve Goodbody, the coach whose record he just tied.”
“Coach (Goodbody) just texted me,” Zenk said. “We talk each Friday. He set this program up for whoever took over after him to succeed and make it better.”
Zenk was awarded his 67th win Friday at Salinas as sophomore quarterback Michael Andrade accounted for four touchdowns in a 45-0 win over Hollister at ‘The Pit’.
“Congrats to coach Zenk and his staff,” said Goodbody, who resurrected the Cowboys during his tenure, starting a playoff streak that has reached 16 straight years. “What a great milestone for Cowboys football.”
Zenk, who is 46-4 in the Gabilan Division in eight full seasons since taking over in 2017, can break the record next Friday when Salinas hosts Monterey.
Coming off a loss to defending champion and unbeaten Soquel, the Cowboys responded with a season high 45 points, while the defense recorded their first shutout of the season.
“We had more spots where we were playing as well as we can,” Zenk said. “We had great effort and passion. It wasn’t just 11 guys on the field. We was 65 Cowboys contributing.”
Andrade continues to evolve at the quarterback position, tossing three touchdown passes — two to Amani Laing, and rushing for one for the Cowboys. He also connected with tight end Madden Eubanks for his first touchdown of the season.
“He’s (Andrade) a sophomore, he still doesn’t have a clue yet,” joked Zenk. “He throws very few bad balls. He is really good at eliminating mistakes. He came into the game completing 73 percent of his passes.”
It didn’t hurt that Salinas used 131 yards on the ground and a touchdown from Raymond Gutierrez to provide a balanced attack, helping the Cowboys build a 21-point halftime lead.
“Practice this week was more about detail,” Zenk said. “We weren’t succeeding because of details. I think they understood by the end of the week. We expected growing pains. The kids are rising to the occasion.”
Particularly the defense, which has given up 40-plus points twice this year to two teams a combined 10-1, and ranked in their respective sections.
An interception from Ryan Palma led to a touchdown for the Cowboys, while Myles Enriquez, Vaughn Robinson and Jackson Silacci-Jensen helped hold Hollister to 35 rushing yards and 82 yards for the game.
“I think we’re exactly where we thought we’d be at the mid-point of the season,” Zenk said. “We’ll look at film and see what we need to get better at. We’re growing the way we expected.”
