Pajaro Valley’s football team couldn’t catch a break in last week’s league opener even when momentum seemed to be riding their way the entire afternoon.
As a result, the Grizzlies fell to Santa Cruz, 44-19, in the teams’ Pacific Coast Athletic League Santa Lucia Division game Sept. 27.
“There was definitely a game of back-and-forth,” PV head coach Casey Neligh said. “It was a heavyweight match, and those guys definitely wanted to perform better than they did last year, and I think they did that.”
Santa Cruz senior quarterback Nevin Ristic was looking for redemption after getting crushed 46-10 by Pajaro Valley in last year’s meeting. He got it by tossing three touchdown passes and rushing for one.
“We executed all week, we had a good week of practice,” Ristic said. “We just kind of came together.”
Despite going three-and-out twice on their opening drive, the Grizzlies had the ball fall right back into their lap.
Joaquin Hidalgo recovered a fumble when Santa Cruz junior Angelo Meyer mishandled a hand-off from Ristic.
PV failed to convert on the opportunity, and it was the Cardinals who got on the scoreboard first. Ristic connected with Brody Hale on a 6-yard touchdown pass that put them ahead 7-0 in the opening stanza.
“We come out here, we’re ready to go but our first drive wasn’t where we wanted to be,” PV senior Benito Lara-Alvarez said.
PV responded back with a nice-looking drive of its own, including a pair of big runs from junior running back Adrian Mendoza.
Lara-Alvarez capped it off with a 5-yard scamper into the end zone, cutting the deficit at 7-6 with 11:56 remaining in the second quarter.
And just when the Grizzlies were about to regain that momentum, the defense allowed Santa Cruz to march down the field due to a pair of penalties, including a 15-yard personal foul on Uriel Murillo-Salcedo.
Moments later, Ristin scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper.
PV caught another bad break when sophomore quarterback Landin Manzi had a pass attempt intercepted by Soji Agbelekale, which turned out to be costly.
The Cardinals capitalized on the turnover with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Ristic to Agbelekale, extending the lead at 21-6 going into halftime.
“It’s apparent that we don’t throw the football very much,” Neligh said. “But it helps when you can throw a deep ball because now you have to respect certain boundaries and perimeters. [Santa Cruz] did a great job.”
Santa Cruz was looking to put the game out of reach midway through the third quarter. But Jamaka Nama had the ball stripped by Isaias Villasana near the goal line to prevent the score.
One play later, Lara-Alvarez took off for a 98-yard touchdown run that cut the deficit at 21-12, and gave the Grizzlies a spark of energy.
“I’m following my blocker and I see the wide receivers are blocking,” he said. “I cut it out to the outside, down the sideline, on to the races.”
It took little to no time for Santa Cruz to put a stop to any come-from-behind-win for PV.
On a third down play, Ristin slipped away from a potential sack, rolled to his right and launched the ball across the field to a wide open Agbelekale for a 57-yard touchdown.
“It was just instincts,” Ristic said. “Sometimes my instincts lie when I should throw that away…In those cases, that’s just a little bit of my inexperience.”
Angelo Meyer then put the game out of reach with a 57-yard rushing touchdown down the left sideline, extending Santa Cruz’s lead at 37-12 with 9:56 remaining in the contest.
Pajaro Valley (1-4, 0-1) plays at Harbor (0-5, 0-1) on Thursday at 6:30pm.
“I think we got to play with a chip on our shoulder the next game,” Lara-Alvarez said. “We just gotta watch film, get practice in. It’s a pretty short week, better come back, bounce back and get up.”
