Cardinals banking on youth and competitiveness
Over his first two seasons as the head coach of Lindsay High School’s varsity football program, Matt Mendonca and the Cardinals’ numbers continued to improve, but they’re still missing two things – a playoff win and a victory over rival Strathmore.
Although Mendonca doesn’t like to look too far ahead into the season, those two items are things he would definitely like to cross off the team’s checklist this season.
“The last two seasons we finished both seasons 0-2,” he said. “We lost to Strathmore and then lost in the playoffs. So, we want to take the next step this year, we want to beat Strathmore and we want to win playoff games.”
Lindsay has an interesting schedule ahead of them. With three new head coaches in the East Sequoia League and dropping down to the CIF Central Section Division VI, there’s multiple unknowns for the Cardinals.
They open the season at home against Exeter - which also has a new head coach – with a 7:15 p.m. kickoff Friday.
Last season Lindsay finished 6-5 and in third place in the ESL with a 3-2 record. Their season ended roughly by losing by 30-plus points to Strathmore and then another 30-plus point loss to Yosemite (9-4) in the opening round of CIF Central Section Div-v championship playoffs.
This season Lindsay will have their work cut out for them on both sides of the ball after graduating both sides of their line and losing their starting quarterback, sophomore Ethan Natera, and star receiver, sophomore Jonathan Hadley, who moved away.
“We’re not going to lower our expectations but what we want to do is make sure that we find every possible kid who can play and get them out here playing,” Mendonca said.
Since Lindsay had to deal with injuries last season, there are a few players with experience on the line but not much.
“Luckily last year, we had a couple of games where we were injured up front, so some of youngsters had to step up,” Mendonca said. “So there’s probably two or three on the [offensive] line that have game experience, other than that everybody’s newbies so losing the most important part of our team is tough.”
Lindsay’s line isn’t the tallest or the biggest, but they do have speed. That combined with competitiveness that was lacking last season due to the number of returners is putting the team ahead of things according to Mendonca.
“This year I see a lot more competition for those spots so we’re actually a little ahead of
where we’ve been in the past but that’s because there’s been a lot more competition out here up front” he said.
In the pocket this season will be senior Ernesto “Ernie” Bautista who did not play last season but was the junior varsity quarterback in 2015.
“He decided to come back out here this year, fortunate for us, and he’s been lights out,” Mendonca said. It’s too bad we didn’t have him last year cause he’d have a whole year under our system. He might’ve been our starting quarterback last year, who knows.”
Two of Bautista’s top targets this season will be senior Chris Orozco and junior Aundrey Tapia. According to Maxpreps.com, Orozco finished the season with 15 receptions for 264 yards and six touchdowns in eight games. Tapia had 14 receptions for 110 yards in nine games.
“We got some other guys kind of stepping up and battling for spots but the two most consistent guys who’ve proven that they can play at the varsity level are Chris Orozco and Andre Tapia,” Mendonca said.
Another player to watch will be Javier Avalos, who has good hands and nice footwork. Last season he played tight end for Lindsay. This season he’ll likely do the same and also play on the defensive side of the ball as well.
Lindsay also graduated their top running back Sal Rivera, but they bring back senior Ethan Duran who’s started on varsity since he was a sophomore and had a lot of experience.
Duran’s moves well and if he gets a good block he can explode down field. Tough to bring down, he finished with 385 yards on 73 carries and four touchdowns in nine games. He’ll split time with newcomer Daniel Trujillo.
“We also bring up Daniel Trujillo from the junior varsity and he’s well over 1,000 yards,” Mendonca said. “We don’t keep stats on JV but he had easily over 1,000 yards. So I’m excited to see both of the guys carrying the football back there.”
The concern the past few seasons was getting players to buy in and stick with the program, but after three years Mendonca believes the team is in a good position for a strong finish this season.
“We were fighting those battles but it seems like having some of these kids for a few years now, they know what it takes to come out here,” he said. “I’m expecting us to take even more strides this year into the playoffs and finishing the season.”