Pajaro Valley senior Carlos Escobar delivered one of his best performances on the basketball court last week with a season-best 29 points in the Grizzlies’ 70-65 loss to York School in league action Jan. 31.
The standout out guard had a chance to tie the score late in the fourth quarter but his 3-point shot attempt bounced in and out of the rim.
“When I went up, I knew the defender was on me, and I knew I gotta go back to my basics,” Escobar said. “I gave him a little V-cut, it got me open for the 3-point shot. It was a good look, I felt confident about it, and unfortunately it didn’t fall.”
With the win, the Falcons improved to a 7-0 record in Pacific Coast Athletic League Santa Lucia Division play, and have a firm grip on the league crown. The Grizzlies meanwhile dropped to 6-2 in league play, and own a 7-9 overall record.
“They fought real hard. At the end of the day, they showed heart,” Pajaro Valley head coach Eddie Marin said after the game.
Senior and co-captain Anthony Aguirre was right behind Escobar with 22 points, followed by teammate senior Alex Acosta with eight.
Gianni Zeljo tallied a game-best 30 points for York, while Dedome Demagbo and Miles Fadem had 18 and 15 points, respectively.
Going into last week’s game, Escobar knew the Falcons were a tough bunch to play against. He said something as simple as a made 3-point shot from the Grizzlies was not gonna take their energy away.
“They’re hustlers. I gotta give it to [York],” Escobar said. “They fought with us with seven people that whole game, and we had a bench full [of substitutes].”
Alexis Michi added four points for Pajaro Valley, while senior and co-captain Jayden Avestraz—who left the game in the third quarter due to an injury—was limited to just two points.
“[Avestraz] has been playing great defense these last couple of games in the past, and just having to see him hurt again, it was a big blow for us,” Marin said. “I know for a fact he was a big impact. He didn’t see it himself, but I think Jayden had fought hard throughout the whole game until that injury.”
Last week’s game was a complete turnaround from the first meeting between both teams on Jan. 13. York handily beat Pajaro Valley, 64-48, that evening.
“Overall great team over there, but we adjusted this time around and we fought hard against them,” Marin said.
On Friday night, Marin saw his group fighting for the ball and adjusting on defense. And the potential game-tying shot set up for Escobar could have gone either way.
“But in the end, we live with the result and we fought hard,” Marin said. “We’re trying to turn around this program and really build something special over here.”
The entire season itself has been a complete turnaround for the Grizzlies, who finished with a 3-21 overall record in the 2023-24 season. They finished eighth in the Cypress Division with a 1-13 record in league play, and were relegated to the Santa Lucia—the lowest tier of the four divisions within the PCAL.
Prior to the start of the 2024-25 campaign, Escobar had a conversation with Aguirre about not wanting to relive the past.
“I told him let’s just lock in at the start so we don’t have to lock in later,” Escobar said. “Let’s just have that winning mentality at the start.”
Escobar ran two miles, worked out afterwards and then played basketball in the afternoon every day in the summer with the goal of winning the program’s first-ever league crown.
His older brother Raymond played on a successful Grizzlies team in 2016-17 that went to the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs. But they weren’t able to deliver a league title.
“They fought for it, and I just wanted to break the seal,” Escobar said.
From the coaching staff sticking together to the players showing up for 6am practices, Marin said everybody was locked in this season. What makes this year more special is the program has a freshman team for the first time in several years.
The season isn’t over, yet Marin can’t help but to be excited about what’s in store for Pajaro Valley in the near future.
“I think the offseason is going to be great for us and just try to push to go back to a different division, or even stay in this one,” Marin said. “But overall, just build something special here in PV.”
The end goal for Marin is consistency, whether it’s working on game planning with the assistant coaches or developing players.
“People that want to play that are scared, timid just due to the fact that they never played, I think it’s just making them believe that they could play,” Marin said.
Pajaro Valley has back-to-back games on the road against Monterey Bay Academy on Monday and Anzar on Tuesday. Both are slated to tip off at 5pm.
“We’re still not done. We’re still gonna fight as much as we can,” Marin said.
