Aptos sophomore kicker River Cook booted a 38-yard walk-off field goal for the Mariners in a 23-22 win over Alvarez High on Thursday night.
“It was a 38-yarder, and he kicked it about 38 and a 1/2 yards,” Aptos head coach Zach Hewett said. “Our defensive line coach still doesn’t believe that it went over.”
It was the first walk-off field goal in the program’s history.
“Which is pretty freakin’ cool,” Hewett said.
Thursday night’s win put Aptos in a much better position to clinch a spot into the Central Coast Section playoffs. They currently own a 5-4 overall record and improved to 2-3 in Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division play.
A win is a win no matter how the job gets done, but Hewett said it was a game where seemingly nothing went in their favor.
“We just kept catching tough breaks where we thought we had a long touchdown run to put the game away, and we got a holding penalty,” he said. “Everything was hard [Thursday] night. I was just super proud of the kids for not letting that get to them, continuing to play and put us in a position where we could give ourselves a chance.”
Senior quarterback Ryan Solorio scored Aptos’ first touchdown on an option play that went for a long run into the end zone. Damian Suchil punched in a TD from 2 yards out, and Nate Garcia followed up with a 7-yard rushing touchdown.
Aptos senior Julian Torres had a big play on defense which forced the Eagles to settle for the late field goal with 52 seconds remaining in the contest.
On the defensive play, Torres was sent on a blitz and he was able to reach Alvarez’s quarterback, who tossed an incomplete pass.
Aptos’ game-winning drive started off with a 20-yard screen pass from Solorio to Suchil. That was then followed up with a 12-yard sweep by MacConnell, who was able to get out of bounds to stop the clock. Moises Torres hauled in a reception for a 10-yard gain that made it a shorter field goal attempt for Cook.
“I kind of black out at this point,” Hewett said.
With nine seconds remaining in the game, Hewett called another pass play. Solorio scrambled around to avoid getting tackled, yet Hewett was more worried his quarterback was going to scramble for too long, and lose the chance at a second play.
Solorio tossed the ball to the corner of the end zone where MacConnell and an Alvarez defender both made a play on the ball.
“We thought there was an interception, but they ruled that it was either incomplete or out of bounds,” Hewett said.
Hewett called a timeout with 1.6 seconds remaining. Moments later, Cook hit the biggest field goal in his young career, and made a name for himself into the history books.
“I just told them to slow down for a second, breathe and visualize their job,” Hewett said. “Just everybody go out there and do their job, and finish it with let’s go break their hearts.”
Aptos (5-4, 2-3) heads into a bye week before its regular season finale at Soquel (6-2, 4-0) on Nov. 8 at 7:30pm.
St. Francis 18, Scotts Valley 14: The Sharks’ defense came through with a game-sealing interception in the end zone to beat the Falcons in Thursday night’s PCAL Mission Division–North thriller at Cabrillo College.
Joseph Dayritt had three rushing touchdowns for St. Francis, which improved to 3-1 in league play. He bulldozed his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score with 2:52 remaining in the contest.
Eli Velez had a pair of rushing touchdowns for the Falcons (3-6, 2-3), who play at Alisal (4-4, 3-1) on Nov. 8 in the teams’ regular season finale.
St. Francis (6-2, 3-1) hosts North Monterey County (5-3, 3-1) for Senior Night on Nov. 2 at 12:30pm.
At Monte Vista Christian 42, North Monterey County 23: Senior quarterback Dominic Pierini threw for 437 yards and six touchdowns in Friday night’s blowout win over the Condors in PCAL Mission Division–North action.
Nico Downie hauled in 11 receptions for 192 yards and a pair of touchdowns for MVC. Fellow teammate Max Arce also recorded two touchdowns, while Boston Ashe and Max Torres each had one TD reception.
Downie, Torres and Brady Cortez each recorded one interception, and Gunner Sorensen led the Mustangs with 14 total tackles and one sack.
MVC (4-4, 2-2) plays at Seaside on Nov. 2 at 7:30pm.
Saturday (Oct. 26)
Pajaro Valley vs. Gonzales, 12:30pm
