Sports

Aptos head coach Randy Blankenship said he’ll try to take “a couple of weeks” off to soak in the Mariners’ historic 2018 season, which featured a win in the Central Coast Section Open Division III championship game and Santa Cruz County’s first California Interscholastic Federation NorCal bowl game berth.

The Aptos Mariners — battered and bruised by the end of the night — did their best Rocky Balboa impression, swinging away at the “big piece of meat” over and over again, but there was no fairy tale ending for the group of scrappy underdogs.

The Aptos football team was on the ropes throughout the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Central Coast Section Open Division III championship game. But whenever the Mariners needed a play — big or small — someone answered.

Marcos Reyes rushed for 212 yards and four touchdowns, Hunter Matys ran for a pair of scores and tossed another and the No. 5-seeded Aptos Mariners trounced the top-seeded Palma Chieftains, 49-6, to advance to the Central Coast Section Open Division III championship game.

In 20 years, Aptos record-setting running back Marcos Reyes wants people to remember three things about him: (1) he was a nice guy, (2) he was a leader and (3) he treated his guys well.

Marcos Reyes, Hunter Matys and Josh Powell all rushed for more than 100 yards, the defense recorded four takeaways and No. 5 Aptos rolled into the Central Coast Section Open Division III semifinals with a 62-37 win over No. 4 Terra Nova on Saturday night.

Stephen Curry, Quinn Cook and DeMarcus Cousins brought the rain with them. With that trio of Golden State Warriors watching courtside, the Santa Cruz Warriors put on a shooting clinic to cruise to a 123-104 victory over the Stockton Kings in their home opener Wednesday night at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

Aptos edged the Capitola-Soquel, 5-4, on Saturday at Scotts Valley to finish up its undefeated run to the District 39 Little League All-Stars Majors championship.

Alex Austen, senior, Aptos: At 6-foot-5 and 311 pounds, Austen wowed with his athleticism on the football field and in the throwing circle. During the fall, Austen helped the Aptos football team finish second in the Monterey Bay League Gabilan division by clearing the way in the trenches. He was named the league’s co-Offensive Lineman of the Year, and also earned an All-MBL-G First Team spot. In the spring, he won the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League title in the shot put and also earned a spot in the Central Coast Section finals in the event.

Over the last nine years as the head coach of the Cabrillo College baseball team, Bob Kittle has had numerous student-athletes from all over Santa Cruz County pour into his program. Just last spring, Kittle had at least one player from all but one public school in the county on his roster. Bringing in the best of the best, and watching the talent and personalities from various backgrounds mesh into a powerhouse representation of the county has been one of his favorite aspects of the job. “Santa Cruz County is unique,” Kittle said in a recent phone interview. “There’s a sense of pride in this county… It’s connected.”