North Salinas football comeback falls short
The North Salinas High football team may be short on varsity experience, but the Vikings showed they're growing up in a hurry despite a 21-14 loss Friday night to Santa Cruz at Rabobank Stadium.
The Vikings trailed 21-0 at halftime and had only four yards rushing — a 38-yard loss on a snap from center on punt formation that Santa Cruz recovered on the North High 1-yard-line to set up its first touchdown was the big blow — and 23 yards passing.
North Salinas ran only eight plays in the first quarter and 19 in the first half.
The second half didn't start out so great either when a promising drive ended with an interception. But the Vikings' spirits picked up considerably when quarterback Joseph Gutierrez turned the corner to his right and out-ran the defense for a 46-yard touchdown to cut the margin to 21-7 late in the third quarter.
A fired up North High defense then forced a Santa Cruz punt and needed only two plays to go 61 yards to score again. Yitzhak Garcia took a throw from Gutierrez, shook off a couple of tackles and raced 50 yards for the touchdown to pull the Vikings within 21-14 with nearly the entire fourth quarter to play.
Garcia had four catches for 75 yards.
Again the Vikings not only stopped Santa Cruz, but the Cardinals' punt was shanked putting North High in business again at the Santa Cruz 43-yard line with 9:43 to play.
The drive ended on a fourth-and-nine situation with Gutierrez scrambling for all but one inch of the needed yardage.
With 6:06 to play North High reached midfield before being stopped on downs.
The Vikings didn't get the ball back until only 10 seconds was left to play on their 18-yard-line. They went to the old hook-and-ladder trick, but Santa Cruz stopped it 10 yards later as the clock expired.
Santa Cruz built its early lead with the help of recovering the snap at the North High 1 for its first score, converted a fourth-and-10 from the Viking 24 that set up its second touchdown and got a 65-yard run by Nathan Crawford that led to its final touchdown of the first half and its 21-0 lead.
After being stopped cold in the first half, North High reversed the trend in the second half. The Viking defense held the Cardinals, now 3-1, to just 69 total yards in the last two quarters.
Meanwhile, the Vikings offense began to click. After being held to four completions in nine attempts for 23 yards in the first half, Gutierrez, a sophomore, went 7-for-11 for 113 yards in the second half.
Gutierrez was also North High's leading rusher after two games, and after a minus-two yard first half, his 46-yard scoring run helped give him 49 yards rushing in the second half.
Santa Cruz stuck to the ground nearly the entire game. It threw only nine passes — just one in the second half — for a grand total of 12 yards.
The ground attack was led by Jalen Allen, a 5-1, 160-pound junior, with 102 yards and two touchdowns — 1 and 5 yards — on 23 carries.
Eddie Moreno, a 5-6, 145-pound senior, rushed eight times for 68 yards, including the final Santa Cruz score — a 10-yard touchdown run with 46 seconds left in the first half.
Crawford totaled 72 yards on six carries.
North Salinas is off to Pitman High in Turlock next Friday.