CARMEL, CA — Zach McDermott and the Salinas High football team spoiled Carmel’s unveiling of its new synthetic field turf Saturday.
The senior quarterback passed and rushed for a combined 395 yards of total offense and five touchdowns and the Cowboys outscored the Padres by 34 points in the second half en route to a 61-29 non-league victory.
McDermott completed 19 of his 25 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 129 yards on only 12 carries including touchdown runs from 1, 85 and 24 yards.
“Our offense did really good today putting up the numbers we did,” McDermott said. “The offense was clicking and the defense was making some stops especially on fourth down.”
After Carmel opened up the second half with a four-play 73-yard drive to take a 22-20 lead Salinas answered right back two plays later on a McDermott 85-yard touchdown run. From then on the Cowboys went on to score 34 unanswered points. The Padres didn’t score again in the second half until the 4:46 mark in the fourth quarter on Daniel Higman's 16-yard run.
It wasn’t just all McDermott offensively for Salinas as senior running back Bruce Leighton ran for 116 yards on 21 carries including two touchdowns and fellow running back Jack Shuler ran for two more touchdowns in the win.
“We were just moving the ball with our new offense,” said Leighton of Salinas’ new read-option attack. “Zach made all the good reads — pulling the ball out when he needed to or taking it and running against their defense. Our offense was set up really well to run against them.”
Combined six Cowboy ball carriers combined for 301 yards on 43 carries in the win.
Salinas opened up the game with a 13-play 65-yard drive which resulted in a McDermott 1-yard touchdown run and two possessions later Leighton also scored on a 1-yard run to make it 13-0.
“We knew we had it in us we have pretty good skilled people, it’s a work in progress,” Salinas coach Steve Goodbody said of his team’s new offense. “Zach is starting to see things better after coming out of a run-oriented offense last year and the offense fits him well because he could use his legs. It was a great team effort.”
Carmel senior quarterback Connor Marden put up really good numbers passing — 23-of-38 for 228 yards, three touchdowns and an interception — but the Cowboys had him under immense pressure and he was sacked four times and hit many other times.
Ethan Aguayo had 1 ½ sacks while Nick Fierros, Jeremiah Garcia and Jacob Rivera added a ½ sack on the reigning two time Mission Trail Athletic League Back of the Year.
John Stivers had 10 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown, Keene Burns three for 32 yards including touchdowns from 6 and 26 yards out and William Kehoe added six catches for 67 yards.
Padres’ sophomore running back Covossay Windham led Carmel’s ground game with 105 yards on 16 carries in the loss.
Aguayo led Salinas with 101 yards receiving on five catches, Rivera added 68 yards on four catches including a 36-yard touchdown reception and Kevin Crosby added 38 yards on three catches with a 13-yard touchdown reception in the win.
Salinas (1-1) will travel to Atherton next Friday at 7:30 p.m. for date with the reigning Central Coast Section Division IV champions in Sacred Heart Prep.
Carmel (0-2) is off to its worst start since 2000 when the Padres went 0-10. Losing is not something Carmel is accustomed to.
“This hurts, it hurts a lot especially the first game (at home),” said Marden. “We had a great home crowd and we just didn’t do our jobs again. It’s been the story the last few weeks. A football game is a football game it doesn’t matter who it is; we are trying to win every single one. It’s not like were are going in thinking it’s Palma, it’s Salinas, they are bigger schools. I’m not okay with losing.”
Carmel will wrap up its non-league slate next Saturday at home when it hosts Christopher (2-0) at 2 p.m.
