Cowboys ready to give another it try

Cowboys ready to give another it try

If any team is due to win a Central Coast Section semifinal game it’s probably the Salinas High football team.

The Cowboys will play their fifth semifinal game in five years tonight against Hollister at 7 p.m. at Salinas High Stadium. They’ve lost at this stage of the season in their past four tries. One of those semifinal defeats came against Hollister in 2009, 14-13.

“We have not played our best football on those days,” Salinas coach Steve Goodbody said earlier in the week. “When you get to this point of the season it comes down to who is the better team that day.”

Salinas was the better team against Hollister on Oct. 5 when it prevailed 26-6. But as far as Goodbody is concerned it’s a whole different ballgame tonight.

“We prepare for the team in the white jersey,” he said. “We’re preparing for the team we see on film. It’s a different team.”

Hollister will be playing in its fourth straight semifinal game, and it has fared only slightly better than Salinas. The Balers lost in the semis last season and 2010, but beat the Cowboys in 2009. Hollister also lost a semifinal game in 2006.

Should the Cowboys win tonight they would advance to a CCS title game for the first time since 2001 where they just happened to have beat Hollister, 7-6, in the D-II final.

The championship game for Divisions I, II, III and IV are all scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 1, at a time and place to be determined.

Two other Monterey County teams will also be involved in semifinal games tonight.

Seaside, the No. 1 seed in D-IV, is home to Menlo School while Monterey, the top seed in D-III, plays Aptos at Monterey Peninsula College.

Seaside (11-0) is trying to become just the second public school football team from Monterey County to finish with a perfect record in the last 23 years. Carmel was the first county public school team since North Monterey County in 1989 to finish unbeaten, untied in 2009 when it went 12-0.

Source : http://www.thecalifornian.com