At one time in the teams’ long history, Aptos and Watsonville were nemesis on the gridiron as members of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.
The rivalry known as the “Black and Blue Bowl” was renewed this past weekend as both programs got together for a second consecutive year following a decade-long hiatus.
In the end, it was the Mariners once again who came away with bragging rights following a 35-28 win over the Wildcatz in front of more than 2,000 spectators in attendance at Trevin Dilfer Memorial Field in non-league action Sept. 5.
“I told the kids after the game I was really proud of the way that the game got away from them, and they stayed within themselves, and they brought it back under their control,” Aptos head coach Zach Hewett said. “That’s a tremendous thing to be able to do in an emotional rivalry with a lot of stuff going on both sides.”
Aptos has won seven consecutive over Watsonville, and owns a 14-1 record since 2002. The last time the ‘Catz beat the Mariners was a 43-23 victory in 2009.
Aptos senior Julian Torres credited his defensive teammates by sticking together as a unit, and bouncing back after getting shut out by The King’s Academy in last week’s 35-0 season-opening loss.
“We couldn’t keep our heads down, we couldn’t let that first game determine how we play this game,” Torres said. “We just had a bunch of mistakes, but we knew coming in the second half it was our game.”
In the second quarter, senior quarterback Joshua Bermio tossed the first of his two touchdowns to senior Moises Torres that gave Aptos a commanding 14-0 lead.
Bermio completed 7-of-11 pass attempts for 156 yards with a pair of touchdowns and one interception.
“I could have been a lot better at preparing them on the defensive side, and that’s fine,” Watsonville head coach Manny Contreras said. “We held our own. We had a couple of turnovers, a pick to the house. We looked good, I’m impressed with these kids.”
It seemed to be smooth sailing for the Mariners. But the ‘Catz, who were fresh coming off a 28-21 win over Santa Cruz, immediately woke up by scoring 21 unanswered points in the second quarter.
Junior quarterback Edwin Cornejo started with a 1-yard touchdown run, followed by an 81-yard touchdown reception from Mark Flores to David Vargas.
Junior defensive back Leeandro Serrano gave Watsonville its first lead of the game at 21-14 with an 85-yard pick six with 1:50 remaining in the first half.
“I told everybody ‘It’s no big deal,’” Julian Torres said. “We get the ball in the second half. We’re gonna do our best, we stay calm and we know what we can do.”
Gavin McDonald tied the game at 21-all after he bulldozed his way into the end zone with 1:57 remaining in the third stanza. He finished with 214 rushing yards on 30 carries and the one score.
Watsonville had a golden opportunity to take back the lead after it was set up with great field position at Aptos’ 25-yard line following a botched punt.
However, the ‘Catz gave the ball right back when junior Jayden Ayala lost a fumble. They also surrendered the ball a second time on a fumble lost by Mathew Silva during a kickoff return.
“We got a bad break,” Contreras said. “That fumble is going to haunt me forever. It’s alright, these kids aren’t used to this type of atmosphere. They’re not used to this stuff and it’s alright, it’s a learning curve for us.”
It wasn’t until midway through the fourth quarter Aptos recaptured the lead, starting with a 12-yard TD run by Caden Bogle. He finished with 97 rushing yards on 14 carries.
Moments later, Bermio redeemed himself by connecting with Torres in the end zone for a second time, giving the Mariners an even larger cushion at 35-21.
“Bermio is a hella of a quarterback,” Hewett said. “He does a lot of good stuff for us, and I was very encouraged with the way, like all the kids, the mental resilience to have bad things happen.”
The ‘Catz weren’t done just quite yet, though. Cornejo drove them down the field by using his legs to move the chains.
Cornejo then rifled in a pass to Mark Flores for a 26-yard TD reception, cutting the deficit at 35-28 with less than one minute remaining in the contest.
Watsonville failed to grab the onside kick attempt, and fell to 1-1 overall in the early campaign.
“We got two weeks to adjust, we’re going to be fine,” Contreras said. “Yes, this is a coaching loss. I lost this game, and I will admit that over and over again, this is solely on me. We’ll look at [film], we’ll be fine.”
Next up, Aptos (1-1) begins Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division play at Monterey (2-0) on Friday at 7:30pm.
Watsonville (1-1) will head into a bye-week prior to its home-opener against Alvarez in non-league play Sept. 19 at 7pm.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said Watsonville High quarterback had one touchdown pass to Ash Franco late in the fourth quarter, which is incorrect. Cornejo’s pass was to Mark Flores, not Franco.
