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SANTA CLARA — Friday night was shaping up to be one of those “everything that could go wrong, did go wrong” brand of games for Wilcox.
Midway through the third quarter, the Chargers found themselves trailing 20-7 to San Benito. Their performance up to that point was littered with mistakes, none more crucial than three fumbles, two of which led to San Benito touchdowns. Another came at the 1-yard line in what should have been the simplest of handoffs, leaving precious points on the board.
All signs were pointing to disaster. The offense kept stalling. The defense looked vulnerable.
Then, just like that, the Chargers flipped the switch, one that all elite teams just seem to have. The offense went full smash-mouth and ran the ball with reckless abandon. The defense was just as good, if not better, stifling the Haybalers at every turn.
If the first two-and-a-half quarters of football at Levi’s Stadium were mired by imperfections, Wilcox dedicated the remaining ticks of the clock to the pursuit of perfection, scoring 27 unanswered points to defeat San Benito, 34-20.
“In the third quarter, our guys stuck with it and they started to play,” said Wilcox coach Paul Rosa. “We caught some momentum on the sidelines, we had some energy, and that turned the game around.”
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Playing an invaluable part in the Chargers’ first win of the season was none other than Paul M. Rosa, the reigning league MVP and coach’s son, who totaled three touchdowns and an eye-popping 277 rushing yards on 33 carries.
Quarterback Geremy McCullough shook off a late turnover and rushed for two touchdowns in back-to-back possessions, along with 70 rushing yards.
“He came back from that,” the elder Rosa said. “He could’ve easily folded and he didn’t. I’m proud of him for that.”
Aaron Ah Sing also rushed for a touchdown, on top of recovering a fumble.
Wilcox opened the scoring on its first drive behind 77 rushing yards and a touchdown from Rosa. From there, though, the offense couldn’t get out of the mud during a mistake-filled first half that paved the way for San Benito to head into the locker room with a 14-7 lead.
San Benito cut Wilcox’s lead to 7-6 with a 28-yard rushing touchdown by Alejandro Cosi. After forcing a Wilcox fumble, San Benito took the 14-7 lead as Michael McShane hit Chris Soto for a 23-yard touchdown.
Wilcox had a golden opportunity to notch things up at 14-apiece before the half, but a fumble near the San Benito end zone on first and goal squashed that opportunity.
“Fumbling on the 1-yard line, first and goal on the one, that’s a huge turnover,” Rosa said. “Huge change of momentum.”
Wilcox’s performance in the second half was the turning point of the game, but more of the same appeared in order after they turned the ball over on their first possession of the third quarter. That giveaway led to a 10-yard rushing touchdown by San Benito’s Juan De Leon, giving the Haybaylers a 13-point advantage.
It was the last miscue Wilcox made. Instead of being too “cute” with the football, as Rosa said, Wilcox stuck with the basics and constantly ran the ball up the gut, daring San Benito to stop them.
“They got big guys up front and that wore on us,” San Benito coach Bryan Smith said. “We didn’t help them offensively. Our last five series, we didn’t get a first down. Our defense is on the field the whole time. Paul loves that. Wilcox loves that style of football.”
On its second drive of the second half, Wilcox went almost entirely with handoffs up the middle. McCullough capped off a 14-play, 89-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown, cutting Wilcox’s deficit to 20-14.
The energy produced by the Wilcox offense rubbed off on the defense. After allowing a touchdown on the first drive of the half, the Chargers defense forced and recovered a fumble, leading to another McCullough rushing touchdown to tie things up at 20-all.
That forced fumble was the start of a dominant string of play for Wilcox’s defense, which forced four consecutive three-and-outs en route to shutting out San Benito for the rest of the game.
“I think we finally got focused,” Rosa said. “(San Benito) does a good job of misdirection, guys carrying out fakes great, and you can’t look at that. You have to look at your key and guys were getting caught looking for the ball and that’s what happens. Once we got rid of that and guys were on point with their job, we shut them down.”
As the Wilcox defense collectively flexed its muscle on drive after drive, the offense stayed true to the ground-and-pound. The younger Rosa’s explosive 36-yard rushing touchdown gave Wilcox the lead, and Ah Sing’s 13-yard rushing score put the nail in the coffin.
While a deflating loss for San Benito, Smith focused on the positives, including the opportunity to play in an NFL stadium.
“Our guys are going to get better,” Smith said. “They’re going to learn from some mistakes that we made, we’re going to condition better and they’ll be ready to go next week.”
