Anzar High defeats Hillbrook in home opener

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After a forfeit to Tomales High and achieving the first shutout in Anzar High School football history—a 29-0 game against Roseland University Prep—the Hawks defeated Hillbrook 44-12 on Oct. 11.

With the victory, Anzar improved to 1-0 in the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s eight-man football division and 2-1 overall. 

“We knew that Hillbrook’s a new team,” Hawks head coach Rudy Abeyta said, “so we planned to come out and really practice our plays. But they were a lot tougher than we thought, they played fair, and they were definitely a class act.”

The Hawks began slowly, gaining a safety on the first play but conceding the first touchdown to Hillbrook. Anzar rallied to a 10-6 lead by the end of the first quarter, and Abeyta, noting it was the team’s inaugural home game, attributed the slow start to “homefield jitters.”

The team gained its stride in the second quarter, with three touchdowns and a 32-6 score at halftime. However, an injury to linebacker Justin Vermilyer temporarily threatened the stability of the game until his return in the third quarter.

“Justin is one of our toughest players,” Abeyta said. “I saw the injury, and I could just tell that it was just a very deep bruise. You cannot hurt him. He will go down, and he will come back every single time.” 

(Vermilyer’s mother, Kelly Vermilyer, made sure that her son’s nickname, “Sasquatch,” would be included in this article. She said she knew her son would only be sidelined for a few minutes and quickly be back to “doing what he is supposed to do—making tackles and giving them a run for their money.”) 

Vermilyer said he was motivated to return to the game because “I didn’t want them to be out there without me,” but the initial uncertainty of his return underlined the complexity of maintaining an advantage when the eight-man team had only 10 of its 12 players available that day. 

After a 1-4 record last year, when two key players were lost for the season during the first few minutes of the first game, Abeyta said that he has striven to develop each player’s versatility. 

“I’ve tried to train everybody in every position,” he said, “and we spend a lot of time in conditioning. In a game like this, as you can tell, our guys are playing both defense and offense. So having this kind of backup is really, really important.” 

During halftime, Abeyta said he worked toward calming the team down after their powerhouse second-quarter performance to keep any overconfidence in check.

“I saw them getting a bit overworked,” he said, “so we spent time working on our breathing and kind of bringing ourselves back into the game rather than allowing our adrenaline and our macho-ness to take over.” 

Confident in his team’s performance, Abeyta started rotating his players’ roles in the game, which held the Hawks to two additional touchdowns for the remainder of the game and allowed Hillbrook to score one more touchdown in the third quarter, ending with a 44-12 score.

“I felt like we dominated the game in the first half,” he said. “I’m pretty good at swapping people out, so when we came back in the second half, I wanted to give a lot of people experience at playing different positions.”

Abeyta singled out Xavier Contreras, who had scored all five of the touchdowns, as one of the key elements in the victory. Abeyta said that Contreras, ordinarily an “amazing receiver,” was dropped in as quarterback following the loss of both players who held that position last year.

“He stepped into the role by default,” Abeyta said. “But he’s an all-purpose player. He can do anything and that’s what he wants. He’s not just a player who’s cocky and just thinks he’s the best thing. He works hard and really wants to be the best.”

(Another would-be touchdown  by Andres Garcia was called back due to a penalty.)

Contreras, 16, who describes himself as a “quarterback, receiver, running back, middle linebacker, defensive back and safety, I guess,” said that he was very disappointed at the beginning of the game when a Hillbrook player scored a touchdown, briefly giving his team the lead.

“All props to that player,” Contreras said. “He has great hands. I don’t know his name, but he did great. But I hated losing last year, and I really want us to stay on our game. I want us to take the league. That’s my aspiration.”

The Hawks will next face Crystal Springs Uplands High (4-0)  in a home game on Oct. 18. All signs indicate it will be a challenging game because the opponent has beaten every team itplayed this season by at least 30 points. Anzar lost to the Gryphons last year in a 32-0 shutout.  

“I’m worried about Crystal Springs,” Contreras said. “I heard that they’re pretty good, but

at the end of the day, I think we’re going to win. We have to show up, stay on top of our game, and if we do, we’ll be good.” 

Vermilyer said he expects the team to take the final four games of the season and make it to the Central Coast Section championships.

“I believe we can do it,” he said. “Our defense is strong and our offensive rush is really good and that is just going to carry us. I think this program has a chance of becoming something great.”

The Anzar Hawks

1 Xavier Contreras – Jr.
7 Cruz Zepeda – Jr.
9 Andres Garcia – Sr.
18 Dominic Cheser – Sr.
24 Landon Gomes – Jr.
32 Justin Vermilyer – Sr.
45 Ricky Guiterrez – Sr.
54 Dario Cayetano – Jr.
69 Miles Anderson – Jr.
81 Mason Gomes – Jr.
88 Hunter Graham – Jr.
92 Pedro Avendano – Jr.
Rudy Abeyta, Head Coach
Kenny Castro, Assistant Coach

Upcoming games:

• October 18 – Crystal Springs Upland @ Anzar – 12:00 p.m. 
• October 25 – Trinity Christian @ Anzar – 12:00 p.m.
• October 31 – Pinewood @ Pinewood – 3:30 p.m. 
• November 8 – Basis Independent @ Anzar – 12:00 p.m.

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