Watsonville High’s Steven Melendez waves the school’s flag in celebration after the Wildcatz beat rival Pajaro Valley on Saturday night at Aptos High to clinch a share of their first league title since 1994. The Wildcatz will open Central Coast Section play Friday at Piedmont Hills. (Photo by Eric Anderson)

APTOS — The Watsonville High football team captured a share of its first league title since 1994 Saturday night, then began setting its sights on winning its first Central Coast Section playoff game since the same year.

The Wildcatz defeated rival Pajaro Valley 50-32 at Aptos High on Saturday to improve to 4-0 all-time in the Belgard Kup and tie Seaside for first place in the Monterey Bay League.

“It means a lot,” Wildcatz senior quarterback Jerry Alvarez said. “We haven’t won an MBL championship in a while.”

“It’s kind of surreal,” Watsonville coach Tom Sullivan said. “We’re all happy, but we’re still hungry for what’s in front of us.”

On Sunday, the CCS seedings meeting was held, and Watsonville (7-3, 4-1) was given the No. 7 seed and will play at No. 2 Piedmont Hills (8-2) on Friday night in the first round of the Division I playoffs. The Wildcatz will be making their first playoff appearance since 2001.

Alvarez set a new Santa Cruz County record for passing yards in a season in Saturday’s victory. Alvarez completed 13 of 16 passes for 245 yards and four touchdowns, pushing his yardage for the season to 2,614. Monte Vista Christian’s Josh Blanton set the previous record, 2,570, in 2006.

Receiver Fernando Olivarez had his second straight four-touchdown game, catching scores of 28, 45 and 2 yards running for a 74-yard score on a reverse. Olivarez had five catches for 118 yards, extending his county record to 1,354 yards.

Pajaro Valley (2-7-1, 0-5) was able to stay in the game early, until a mistake shortly before halftime tilted the momentum Watsonville’s way.

Esteban Narez gave the Grizzlies the early lead with a 64-yard touchdown run. After a pair of Olivarez touchdowns gave Watsonville a 14-7 edge, Moe Strickling scored on a 49-yard carry to tie the game. Pajaro Valley was then successful with an onside kick, and Strickling scored on a 1-yard run on the ensuing possession, giving the Grizzlies a

20-14 lead with four minutes, 49 seconds left in the second quarter. Strickling had 167 yards on 28 carries and finished the regular season with 1,224 yards, good for third in the Monterey Bay area.

Pajaro Valley attempted another onside kick, but it failed and Tony Mora scored on a

3-yard carry, and a 2-point conversion gave Watsonville a

22-20 lead. The Grizzlies were forced to punt on their ensuing possession, but the snap flew over the punter’s head, and Watsonville took over on the Grizzlies’ 12-yard line. Two plays later, Mora scored on another

3-yard run, and the Wildcatz took a 29-20 lead into halftime.

Watsonville wasted no time putting away the game in the second half, scoring on its first two offensive plays in the third quarter and taking a 43-20 lead. Olivarez weaved through the Grizzlies’ defense on his 74-yard run for a touchdown, then Alvarez hit Marco Hernandez with a 44-yard touchdown pass.

Sullivan said the Wildcatz tried some new looks and plays in preparation for the CCS playoffs.

“When we needed a big play, we went back to our usuals and it worked,” he said.

Strickling scored on an

11-yard run late in the third quarter to cut Watsonville’s lead to 17 points. After Olivarez’s 2-yard touchdown catch, Pajaro Valley quarterback Adrian Martinez hit Francisco Cornejo with a 44-yard touchdown pass to complete the scoring. The ball bounced off a Watsonville defender’s hands and into Cornejo’s.

“(Pajaro Valley) did pretty good, but we knew what we had to do,” Olivarez said.

The Wildcatz say they also know what they have to do against Piedmont Hills: play their best game of the season. The Pirates took second behind Pioneer (10-0), the top seed in the CCS’ Open Division, which features most of the section’s top teams, in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

Watsonville is 0-4 in the first round since it reached the Division II championship game in 1994, losing each game by at least 22 points.

“We know we’re the underdog in this one,” said Sullivan, a member of the 1994 team. “It’s the No. 2 seed going against us, the No. 7 seed. We have to play a near-perfect game in order to continue on.”

Piedmont Hills is similar to Watsonville in many ways. Like the Wildcatz, it runs a spread offense and also runs a similar defensive scheme, which Sullivan said allows Watsonville to focus more on fundamentals in practice this week. Another similarity is that Piedmont Hills also knows how to put plenty of points on the scoreboard and has dangerous weapons. Pirates quarterback Joshua McCain has thrown for 1,938 yards and 23 touchdowns and has 927 yards rushing, running back Derek Stewart has 753 yards rushing in seven games, Devante Williams has 678 yards rushing and Stephen Anderson has 51 catches for 715 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“Each possession we’re going to have to score touchdowns,” Alvarez said.

Sullivan said the game “could turn into a track meet,” but added that he doesn’t want it to.

“They’ve got to stop us. We’ve got to stop them,” he said. “We pretty much go from there.”

“If we really want (a win), we’ll get it,” Olivarez said. “It’s the first time we’ve been in the playoffs in a long time, so we’re going to make the best of it.”



For the complete article see the 11-17-2009 issue.

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