For the past 23 years, Frank Marques has served as the Hilmar Yellowjackets’ head football coach. Marques — who coached for over 40 years — retired after last season, turning over the reins to the Yellowjackets program to his JV head coach Mark Santos.
While they had a new coach and a new season, the Los Banos Tigers varsity football team had the same result, as the Yellowjackets handed the Tigers a 45-21 defeat last Friday night in Hilmar.
When Hilmar received the opening kickoff, return man Hunter Greunke was steamrolled by Zayden Affonso-Stiers, resulting in a fumble that John Snapp recovered at the Los Banos 45-yard line.
On their first play from scrimmage following the fumble recovery, Tigers quarterback Zaevin Cancino followed blocks by Armando Luque and Giovanni Discua on a 38-yard scamper to set up a Tigers first down at the Hilmar 19-yard line.
Following a 1-yard gain by Bradly Villagrana, Cancino powered through a hole opened up by Pierre Berry and Arath Villavaso for an 18-yard touchdown run.
Andrew Loretto added the conversion kick, and with 10:52 left in the first period, the Tigers held an early 7-0 advantage. That lead was the last time Los Banos would be ahead on this night.
Hilmar scored on its next 3 possessions, with Greunke finding the end zone on touchdown runs of 41 and 1 yards, and Lucas Belo added an 18-yard score. Blake Vitorino kicked all three conversion kicks to give Hilmar a 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The first of two Andrew Loretto interceptions set up the Tigers in great field position at the Yellowjackets 26-yard line.
The Tigers needed just 5 plays to cover the 26 yards, with Cancino scoring on a quarterback keeper from 18 yards out. The conversion kick failed, and the Tigers narrowed the Hilmar advantage to 21-13. Unfortunately, that 7-point deficit was as close as the Tigers would get in this game.
The Yellowjackets used 2 touchdown runs by Cohen Felber (11 and 4 yards, respectively) and a Vitorino 34-yard field goal to take control of the game by 38-14. A second Loretto interception at the Los Banos 38-yard line set up the final Tigers touchdown.
Three Cancino runs netted 13 yards, a pass completion to Justin Sherwood for eight yards, and 2 receptions by Maggio Carter (16, 17 yards, respectively) accounted for 64 yards on the drive, setting up a first down at the Yellowjackets 12-yard line.
Two runs by Snapp resulted in the third Tigers score of the contest. Snapp then tossed a halfback option pass to Jayden Rasberry for the 2-point conversion, making the score 38-21 in favor of the home team, the Yellowjackets.
Hilmar closed out the scoring with 2:38 left in the game when Jax Parmley scored on a 16-yard scamper. Vitorino added the conversion kick to make the final score 45-21 in favor of Hilmar.
Cancino led the Tigers offense (11/27 passes, 91 yards, 17 rushes, 105 yards), with Maggio Carter (2 catches, 37 yards) and Elijah Chiappetta (2 catches, 20 yards) adding to the offense.
Affonso-Stiers (6 tackles) paced the Los Banos defense, with Moises Perez, Justin Sherwood and Snapp each collecting 5 stops.
The Los Banos JV team did not fare much better, as the young Tigers were shut out by the Yellowjackets by 35-0.
Hilmar used 3 touchdown runs by Cameron Trindade (33, 91 and 34 yards) and one score each by Jayden Humble and Daniel Rodrigues to score 35 points en route to their shutout win.
The Tigers offense struggled against the Hilmar defense, only managing 142 total yards all game long. On defense, the Tigers had fine performances from Grayson Houtekamer (10 tackles, fumble recovery), Luke Barrett (9 tackles) and Jorge Olivares with 6 stops.
On the bright side, the Los Banos Tigers freshman team routed the freshman Yellowjackets 32-7 on Thursday night at the Loftin Stadium.
Los Banos scored early when Amare Berry blocked a Hilmar punt, and Reyes Garcia recovered the loose pigskin at the Hilmar 40-yard line.
It took the Tigers just 1 play to cover the 40 yards, when Landon Bell (11 carries, 58 yards, 2 touchdowns) followed blocks by Andrew Ceja and Sam Chavez into the end zone and a Los Banos 6-0 advantage.
A Caleb Rocha fumble recovery set up the Tigers’ second score. Tyson Bridgeford followed a Devin Cortez block into the end zone from 7 yards out, giving Los Banos a 12-0 lead.
A second Bell touchdown, from 4 yards away, gave Los Banos an 18-0 lead, and when Bridgeford added the 2-point conversion, the Tigers held a 20-0 lead.
Los Banos made it 26-0 when Tigers quarterback Logan Ellison (6 of 8 passing, 92 yards, 2 touchdowns, 4 rushes, 24 yards) connected with Lorenzo Perez (2 catches, 37 yards) on a 20-yard scoring pass.
An Adrian Vazquez interception led to the final Tigers touchdown, when a 15-yard Ellison-to-Gage Torres (2 catches, 38 yards, a touchdown) scoring pass made it 32-0 in favor of Los Banos.
Hilmar scored a touchdown late in the game to make the final score 32-7 in favor of the Tigers.
