You can’t prepare for the suddenness of a season ending in a split second. Not when the expectation is to play more football.
For several of the seniors on the Salinas High football team, walking off the field in uniform was for the final time last Friday after the Cowboys fell in overtime, 43-42, to Placer at The Pit in the State Northern California Division 4-AA bowl game.
The loss likely didn’t set in until most of the players woke up the next morning. If it didn’t hit them then, it surely did Monday when players began turning in uniforms to head coach Steve Zenk.
“Collecting uniforms always sucks,” Zenk said. “It’s always emotional. This season was incredible and a testament to the kids’ hard work, great attitudes and willingness to both lead and follow.”
The Cowboys’ historic season included snapping a 15-year losing streak to Palma, going undefeated in the Monterey Bay League’s Gabilan Division and capturing a Central Coast Section Open Division I title.
Salinas tied the school record for wins in a single season with 11 and ran off a record 10 straight wins to reach uncharted waters with a NorCal bowl game.
Looking back, the Cowboys’ season began with five different players scoring touchdowns in a 42-6 romp over Oak Grove in their season opener. Yet, there were some bumps and barriers in their path, such as suffering back-to-back losses to Terra Nova and Milpitas.
Salinas was outscored 41-0 combined in the first half in those games, creating questions but never doubts about the direction Zenk was taking the program
“We stuck together,” Zenk said. “We did this together like everything we do because we’re Cowboys. That’s what we do.”
What transpired was Salinas taking its student body on a ride of a lifetime, starting in Seaside, where it erased a one-point first-quarter deficit with a 21-point uprising in the second. So much for those first-half offensive struggles. The Cowboys chalked up more than 300 rushing yards in the game behind Ritchie Cerda and Brett Reade, who both rushed for more than 100 yards while Mike Cortez added 98. The trio combined for four touchdowns. Granted, the defense helped as well, as Hunter Mason had his second pick-six of the season.
Reade gave opponents a glimpse of what was to come in that second quarter by throwing a touchdown and rushing for a touchdown — something he would end up doing 32 times this year.
The very next week, Salinas put up a season-high 48 points against North Salinas, which could have been a lot worse — if you ask former North Salinas coach Darren Spence.
“Salinas could have put 100 up on us that night,” Spence said. “I really appreciated the class Steve and his staff showed that night.”
Then, game most wearing purple had circled on the calendars from the minute schedules were released was right in front of the Cowboys: Palma.
In the past, emotions or mental mistakes had gotten the best of Salinas against Palma, leading to 15 straight losses. With the Cowboys clinging to a 7-0 halftime lead, Zenk felt somewhat worried. But with Reade completing 19-of-19 pass attempts that night, the Cowboys put up two more scores in the second half to beat the Chieftains 21-7.
Emotions were kept in check. Well, in the locker room it may have been a little noisy. But the business-like approach continued the following week in Hollister.
Concerns about a letdown were erased the moment Salinas got off the bus. Reade tossed a pair of touchdowns in the first half to stake it to a 28-0 lead in a 41-13 pasting of San Benito. Reade also gave Salinas another option on the ground, rushing for 130 yards, while throwing for 154 yards and three touchdowns.
The following week, Reade rushed for 175 yards in a rout of Monte Vista Christian, then fired two touchdown passes to Jeff Weimer in a 21-0 win over Alvarez. A battle of unbeatens in the MBL-G then unfolded in a road trip to Aptos, where Salinas was down 14-10 before running off 14 straight points behind touchdown runs for Cerda and Drew Schuler. Reade also rushed for two touchdowns and was 14-of-17 through the air in a 31-21 win, completing an undefeated league season.
The Cowboys were flat in their postseason opener, mustering just a touchdown pass and touchdown run from Reade against 3-7 Palo Alto. Yet, the defense came up big in critical moments, as they used an interception from Schuler late in the fourth to salvage a 14-7 win.
Reade put the team on his shoulders in the semifinals, throwing for 251 yards and three touchdowns and rushing for three touchdowns as Salinas built a 42-0 lead in a rout of Los Gatos. In that game, Reade also became the first Salinas player to rush for over 1,000 yards and throw for over 1,000 in a single season.
A redemption tour that included ending losing streaks to Palma and Aptos had one more on its list: Milpitas, which had beaten the Cowboys three straight years, including 10 weeks earlier.
The Cowboys hadn’t scored a touchdown against Milpitas in 13 straight quarters until Reade plowed in from eight yards out to give them a 7-5 lead in the second quarter. The 12-0 Trojans answered with 13 straight points, including a touchdown, to open the second half to take an 18-7 lead.
If there was one play that defined Salinas’ magical season, it came in the third quarter of that game, when Reade hit Weimer on fourth-and-long for 27 yards to keep the chains moving. Moments later, Reade connected with Ivan Curiel on a nine-yard touchdown in the left corner to get them to within five.
Momentum turned just like that. Milpitas could not re-establish a ground game that had 228 yards in the first three quarters as Schuler and Noah Habes led a resurgent Cowboys defense. When Cerda pounded his way into the end zone to wrap up the third, Salinas held a 20-18 lead — the first time Milpitas had trailed in the fourth quarter this season.
“It looks like they’re sleeping over there,” said Zenk, as the fourth quarter began.
A 41-yard field goal by Adrian Hernandez put the Cowboys up by five with 11:18 left, and the lead would increase to seven when the defense recorded a safety.
Milpitas, which tossed three touchdown passes in its win over Salinas back on Sept. 15, threw for just 27 yards with Kelly McDermott sealing the section title with an interception.
For the first time since Salinas prevailed 7-6 in the mud at Gilroy in 2001 over San Benito, it had won a CCS championship.
“I personally just want to say ‘Thank you, Cowboys,’” Zenk said. “I love every one of these kids. What a ride.”
John Devine can be reached at 831-726-4337.
