SANTA CRUZ — Pajaro Valley head coach Kevin Cordova pulled off a back juke that would’ve made Walter Payton proud.
His players who tried but failed to hit him with a celebratory ice bath weren’t too stoked about their coach’s athletic ability.
“They were mad at me for dodging it,” Cordova said. “I told them, ‘you got to get better at it.’”
If the Grizzlies keep playing like they did on Friday night, they’ll have plenty of chances to improve.
Carlos Hernandez and Russel Pablo combined to rush for 224 yards and four touchdowns, and the Pajaro Valley defense came a few plays short of pitching a shutout in the Grizzlies’ 45-6 rout of Harbor.
The win pushed Pajaro Valley’s overall record to 3-4, and also gave Cordova his first league win, stopping an 0-8 start dating back to last season. The Grizzlies are 1-2 in Pacific Coast Athletic League Santa Lucia division action.
“Finally, we finally got that off our chest,” said Pablo, a senior. “We’re just trying to get as many ‘W’s as we can.”
Pajaro Valley’s league-title hopes took a hit after last week’s loss to Greenfield, but the Grizzlies still have a shot at notching the program’s first winning season since 2007.
The program record for league wins (3) is also still attainable.
“Sure, people will say we’re not in the league we once were, but it doesn’t matter. We still have to go out there and battle,” Cordova said. “We’re learning how to win and close out games.”
Pajaro Valley led 32-0 at the intermission, and played the majority of the second half with a running clock.
The Grizzlies totaled 392 yards of offense, and produced six drives of six plays or more.
“The plays were hitting exactly where we wanted them to,” said Hernandez, a junior.
Hernandez punched in a pair of short touchdown runs in the first quarter, and sophomore running back Martin Gonzalez started the rout with his 2-yard score early in the second quarter.
Pablo wove through the Harbor (0-7, 0-4) defense for a 17-yard touchdown, and Gonzalez booted a 24-yard field goal to give the Grizzlies the comfortable lead at the half.
Junior full back J.J. Briseno added a 5-yard touchdown on Pajaro Valley’s first drive of the second half, and Pablo trotted in for his second touchdown of the night to finish off the dominant victory.
Harbor had 126 yards of offense, the majority of which came on an 85-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Preston Burgess to junior receiver Brendan Bobo in the third quarter.
That long hookup was one of the few highlights for the Pirates, as Pajaro Valley’s defense held them to minus-18 yards on the ground and pulled down Burgess for five sacks.
Alex Vasquez had 2 1/2 sacks.
Senior Max Arevalo and sophomore Ladis Silva each recorded an interception.
“On defense, we made some errors — wrong positioning and wrong decisions,” Pablo said. “We cleaned it up, but we can get better at it. We can work on it.”
Two other things the Grizzlies would like to work on: (1) cutting down penalties — they had 13 for 127 yards — and (2) their ice bath technique.
“PV’s known for not being that great, so we have to start setting the tempo — start making the difference here in PV,” Hernandez said. “Throwing the [ice bath], it’s us showing pride in winning. PV hasn’t won a league game in a while. Doing that, setting the tempo, we hope we’re getting things hyped up.”
Pajaro Valley hosts Soquel next week.
In other week 8 high school football action:
• Scotts Valley 25, Watsonville 20 – Watsonville’s chances of ending a Central Coast Section playoff drought that dates back to 2009 took another hit on Friday night in Scotts Valley.
With the loss, Watsonville fell to 4-3 overall and 1-2 in PCAL-Mission play.
Only the top three teams in the division earn automatic berths to the CCS playoffs.
The Wildcatz will try to regroup next week at home against Alisal.
Watsonville rallied from down 25-7 in the second half, but had a possible game-winning drive stall at midfield with less than a minute left to play.
• M.V.C. 21, Alisal 13 – Quinn Alexander scored two touchdowns, Scott Tinsley added another and the Monte Vista Christian defense made key stops to move the Mustangs into sole possession of second place in the PCAL-M on Friday night in Salinas.
M.V.C. (3-4, 3-1) will travel to Monrovia for a non-league game next week before returning home to play North Salinas.
• Aptos 49, Gilroy 0 – Aptos rolled to its seventh straight win on Friday night at home in a PCAL-Gabilan division contest.
Marcos Reyes and Vaughen Holland each scored a pair of touchdowns, while Hunter Matys, Juziah Rivero and Christian Mendoza also scored touchdowns for Aptos (7-0, 4-0).
Aptos travels to Christopher in Gilroy next week.
• N.M.C. 21, Santa Cruz 0 – North Monterey County posted its first shutout victory of the season on Friday night in Castroville.
The Condors (4-4, 2-2) head into their bye week before traveling to King City on Oct. 26.
