WATSONVILLE — The chants from Aptos High’s student section were loud and frequent late in the third quarter Saturday night: “We want Palma!”
And Palma they’ll get.
At the outset of the week, Mariners football coach Randy Blankenship told quarterback Hunter Matys to throw caution to the wind and run wild in Saturday night’s Central Coast Section Open Division III playoffs. They both knew their quarterfinal game was “win or go home” against No. 4-seeded Terra Nova. The entire Mariners squad took the message to heart, because they left nothing for chance in a 62-37 rout of the Tigers at Watsonville High.
“We got the win,” said Blankenship, smiling. “Any time you get to play after Thanksgiving, that’s a good deal.”
It was Aptos’ highest point total in postseason play, bettering their mark set in a 50-3 win over Branham in 2014.
“Getting 62 points is hard,” Matys said. “It’s an all-around credit to everybody.”
Matys put his team on the board with a 68-yard scoring run, and the No. 5 Mariners (9-2) never trailed as they earned a rematch with Pacific Coast Athletic League Gabilan Division co-champion Palma (10-1), the No. 1 seed, next weekend at a site and time to be announced.
The Mariners, who tied for third place in the PCAL-G after blowing fourth-quarter leads in narrow losses to both Palma and co-champion Salinas, was a force on offense. That allowed them — against Terra Nova, at least — to brush their shortcomings in the defensive secondary under the rug.
Matys, record-setting running back Marcos Reyes, and fellow back Josh Powell each rushed for 100-plus yards as the Mariners’ ground attack finished with 588 yards and seven touchdowns on 66 carries.
“That’s unreal,” Blankenship said. “Over 500 yards rushing and three 100-yard backs? Only thing better would’ve been four.”
It was sweet revenge for the Mariners, who were ousted by the Tigers 24-14 in the 2017 Open D-III quarterfinals. Aptos was without two starters that game, including Reyes, who was out with an injured ankle.
Jared Julian, Terra Nova’s 6-foot-3, 210-pound dual-threat quarterback, knew the Mariners were going to be fired up for the rematch.
“After last year’s win on the road, at Aptos, I can’t imagine how bad they wanted to win that one,” Julian said. “But Blankenship, he’s a phenomenal coach. You can see how his offense runs. It’s like a machine. Pros to them. They outprepared us and they outworked us on the field.”
Reyes, Aptos’ all-time leading rusher and scorer, ran for 173 yards and a pair of scores on 19 carries. He also, while playing linebacker, stripped Julian of the ball as he reached out for another yard and returned the takeaway 50 yards for a touchdown.
“On that play, he stuck the ball out,” Reyes said. “I was like right there. He had been doing it all game. I was like, ‘You know what? Gimme that. That’s mine!’ I thought (officials) blew the whistle, so I started jogging. No one … so I started sprinting. I was gassed. By the time I was in it, I was like, ‘Did it count?’ But it was all good.”
Matys ran for 131 yards on 10 carries. Powell put Aptos up 14-0 on his 69-yard touchdown run and finished with 130 yards on 16 carries.
Bubba Gallardo ran for 75 yards and a pair of scores on 10 carries and Andrew Manning capped scoring for the Mariners with his 42-yard run in the fourth quarter.
The quarterfinal — played more than two weeks after it was initially scheduled — was postponed four times due to air quality in the Bay Area, a result of several ongoing fires in Northern California. Because the Air Quality Index was substantially worse in Pacifica, hometown of the Tigers, the team was forced to practice in their gymnasium for much of the past two weeks. They donned their football pads just once during that time.
“The outcome wasn’t what we wanted, or what we worked for,” Julian said. “We ended up facing a lot of adversity this week.”
After numerous attempts to keep home-field advantage, the Tigers finally agreed to move to a neutral site with a lower AQI. That site turned out to be Watsonville, essentially in Aptos’ backyard.
“We held in there at practice, we kept working hard throughout the week,” Matys said. “I think we unleashed all of our potential today.”
Julian entered the game with 17 touchdowns and 1,700-plus yards passing to go along with 16 rushing scores. He eluded a handful of sacks and finished 14 of 24 for 322 yards and three touchdowns, throwing scoring strikes to Chase McKnight, Nate Rios and Raphael Bendo.
Rios finished with a pair of scores. He also hauled in a 50-yard pass from receiver Mateo Jimenez on a trick play to end the third quarter.
Julian also ran for a team-high 191 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries as the Tigers finished with 225 yards rushing and 372 passing.
The Mariners jumped out to a 21-0 lead on Reyes’ 50-yard fumble return and converted turnovers into points on three of their first five touchdowns to lead 35-14 at the half.
“I’m glad they did it,” Blankenship said of the turnovers, “or we probably would’ve lost the game. The first three series we play really good defense and (then) we decide to not concentrate. But I want to look at the other thing: The game was postponed (four) different times … The kids showed a lot of resilience. ”
The Mariners received the opening kickoff in the second half and marched 62 yards on 15 plays to go up 41-14. The drive included a pair of fourth-down conversions and took 6 minutes, 27 seconds off the clock.
Terra Nova scored on its next possession — a 67-yard scoring strike from Julian to Rios, but the Mariners continued to get huge production on offense and keep the ball out of the Tigers’ hands.
The Mariners came up empty-handed on a 14-play drive to open the fourth quarter but drained enough of the game clock to make the outcome a mere formality.
The Mariners’ fan base felt plenty comfortable in the third, though, and let their thoughts be known. “We want Palma!”
The Score
Aptos 62, Terra Nova 37
Up next: CCS Open Division III semifinals, No. 5 Aptos vs. No. 1 Palma
When: Friday or Saturday, time TBA
Where: TBA
