If the 2010 prep football season were a monster movie marathon, the Santa Ynez Pirates would be The Thing That Wouldn’t Die.
After starting the regular season 1-4, including four straight losses, the Pirates have turned their ship around in remarkable fashion. Since a 20-14 loss to Morro Bay on Oct. 8, the team has won six of its last seven games, including a victory over Torrence’s North High School in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Northwest Divisional playoffs on Nov. 19.
In the second year of his second stint with Santa Ynez, head football coach Ken Gruendyke credited a hard fought 28-27 victory over Templeton on Oct. 15 with getting the team out of the doldrums and on the winning track. Now, little more than a month later, the Pirates find themselves heading to the second round of CIF for the first time since 2000.
“We faced a lot of adversity this year with things happening and injuries,” Gruendyke said. “We weren’t quite sure what we were going to do in the second half of the season.”
Among their travails, the Pirates have overcome devastating injuries to team captain and star receiver Junior Alejandre, who suffered a season-ending leg injury Oct. 1 against Lompoc, and starting fullback Jason Miranda, who got hurt in the last game of the league season against Cabrillo.
“We’ve seen the leadership aspect step up,” Gruendyke said. “The kids haven’t given up, and have played tough and hard even through our losses. That was really a character sign of good things to happen during that [losing] stint.”
As if locked in a microcosm of the season, the Pirates needed a comeback of epic proportions just to get to the second round, eking out an upset win on the road against North.
Down 14-7 going into the fourth quarter, the Pirates scored 21 unanswered points, tying the game with a 51-yard interception return for a touchdown by linebacker Abe Santos. Senior tailback Cole Hollingsworth then scored two rushing touchdowns to close out the game 28-14. Hollingsworth finished with 105 yards on 20 carries.
As a result of the win, Santa Ynez faces its biggest test at home on Nov. 26, a second-round grudge match against Nordhoff of Ojai, the Northwest division’s top-ranked team and undefeated at 11-0. In a regular season game in 2009, host Nordhoff narrowly beat the Pirates in the final seconds, 14-12.
“We go back a long ways with Nordhoff,” said coach Gruendyke. “We’ve had some real barnburners over the years. We’re really looking forward to it.”
Going into the contest a heavy underdog, Gruendyke said the Pirates would need to play disciplined football to pull off the upset.
Senior tight end Travis Porter, getting his first CIF playing experience this year, said the players were feeling confident they could do just that.
“We just need a really good practice, study some film, and I think we’ll be ready to go,” he said.
While the Pirates aren’t taking Nordhoff lightly, the team is looking ahead to a possible semifinal rematch at home against Los Padres League champion Lompoc High, which pulled out a narrow 20-19 win over the Pirates during the regular season.
Starting quarterback Ryan Welker said the game, and other early losses, only served to make the Pirates a more fundamentally sound unit later in the season.
“We figured out where we were as a team and built on that week by week. We got better,” Welker said. “We didn’t make as many mental errors and that was evident in how we won some of those close games.”
Senior backup quarterback Parker Johnson, who filled in admirably for Welker all season long, described the difference in the team from their early struggles as “night and day.”
“We didn’t really know our identity at the beginning of the season, and when we came together, we really got tight,” he said. “We’re so much closer as a team and a unit. We’re pretty laid back. We joke around a lot. It’s just our style, and we’ve made it work for us.”
The CIF playoffs are the latest chapter in a season that saw the Pirates finish tied for second in the league standings with a 4-2 mark and a 6-5 overall record. As the season progressed, the Pirates got used to being the underdog and, according to the players, learned to relish the role.
“It’s the feeling that if we don’t win, we don’t have another chance,” Johnson said. “After our first two league losses, if we would have lost another game, we wouldn’t be in CIF right now. It’s a big boost knowing that if we lose, we’re done.
“A lot of teams will falter and trip up when they’re in that situation,” he added. “But we really fight when our backs are against the wall.”
[image-5] Johnson and Welker have combined to lead a much-improved Pirates’ passing game, which in turn has opened up the running game for Hollingsworth and fullback Santos. Junior Zack Foss stepped in to fill the hole left by Alejandre, joining a solid receiving corps including senior Wyatt Garley, junior Lee Jensen, and Porter.
On the other side of the ball, Gruendyke described his defense as “scrappy,” led by Jensen at linebacker and Jake Jacobson, an undersized defensive tackle.
“[Defense is] what we’re hanging our hat on,” Gruendyke said. ”We’re not going to sit back. We take some risks and sometimes it hurts us. We basically put eight guys in the box and stop them from doing different things.
“That’s first and foremost,” he added. “If you’re going to win championships, you build with defense.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas builds for championships with Legos. He can be contacted at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 2, 2010.
