FELTON >> It wasn’t so much the feeling of being disrespected as it was being forgotten. When the topic came to the high school football postseason or chasing a title over the last month, Stevenson School’s name didn’t appear in the conversation.

“It seemed like everyone forgot about us and the style of football we play,” Stevenson coach Kyle Cassamas said. “We started the year late, with a ton of injuries. We faced adversity. For us it was about staying focused on the big picture.”

The Pirates have locked up no worse than a share of their second Santa Lucia Division title in three years Saturday after knocking San Lorenzo Valley from unbeaten ranks with a 24-14 win in Felton.

“It’s just one step of many,” Stevenson linebacker Tommy Dayton said. “You have to battle through that adversity. We did a good job in rallying together when you need to muscle up and play football.”

The Cougars came into the game as one of two teams in the Pacific Coast Athletic League undefeated at 8-0, having knocked off a defending Central Coast Section divisional champion and a reigning league champion along their path.

Now San Lorenzo Valley will need to win its final game and hope for Marina to upset Stevenson to have any hopes of just making the playoffs.

“The kids were ecstatic,” Cassamas said. “I think where our heart developed was in those early season losses. It helped us prepare for a game like this. It’s about challenging ourselves. We started to build the pieces. We’re playing our style of football.”

Those building blocks actually began last season when Cassamas brought up eight sophomores, who endured expected growing pains. That group is now the heart of this year’s title team.

Staring at a 14-3 deficit, the Pirates changed the complexion of the game right before the half ended when Caden Olson returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to six.

“That was a momentum changer,” said Cassamas, whose squad is 5-0 since a 1-2 start to the year.

A touchdown run from Tono Borgamini put the Pirates up for good in the third quarter, before Fin Mink iced the game with an 88-yard touchdown pass to Derek Diniz late in the fourth quarter. All three were a part of last year’s sophomore class call-up.

“We’ve enjoyed this enough,” Cassamas said. “Now it’s time to start focusing on Marina. The kids were excited to beat SLV. We’ve been hearing all the noise all year. We wanted those expectations.”

Stevenson’s last postseason trip was a loss to Palo Alto in the Division V playoffs. That was when teams from ultra-competitive “A” leagues were allowed to compete in that division.

After a rule change, only “C” and “B” league teams are allowed to compete in Division IV and V. Stevenson will be a Division V team if it beats Marina in next Saturday’s home finale.

“As soon as we hit league, we set the tone for the year,” said Dayton, who is on pace for a second straight 100-plus tackle season as a team captain. “Today it was super high energy from all of us. We went out and showed we were the better team.”

During Stevenson’s run at supremacy in league play, it has outscored the opposition 199-74, with the average margin of victory being 26 points.

San Lorenzo Valley came into the game having allowed a PCAL-low 55 points in eight games. It had held its past seven opponents under 10 points or less.

North County 34, St. Francis 26

The Condors ended one of the longest title droughts in the county. Their win coupled with Watsonville upsetting Alisal gives North County (6-3) no worse than a share of the Mission Division North title and a return to the playoffs

The last time the Condors won a league title was in 2003. The last time the Castroville-based school reached the postseason was in 2010. The last time they registered a winning record was in 2019.

The Condors came out and built a 14-6 lead on the strength of touchdown runs from Marcos Mendoza and Chris Rasmussen.

Having been humbled at Monte Vista last week, the Condors never trailed, opening up as much as a 15-point cushion in the fourth quarter after AJ Gomez connected with Rasmussen on a 4-yard touchdown pass.

North Salinas 19, Soledad 7

Last year at this time, the Vikings practiced for a week, not knowing if there would be an extension of their season or not.

While a bye week in Week 11 isn’t ideal, North Salinas won’t be going through the motions after clinching the No. 2 seed out of the Mission Division South after beating Soledad.

“I think we know what we need to work on in terms of deficiencies and small details,” North Salinas coach Ben Ceralde said. “We’ll get back to the fundamentals and stay in shape because we have a game in two weeks.”

While North Salinas is going back to the playoffs for the third time in four years, last fall it didn’t learn of its fate until it was awarded an at-large spot at the Central Coast Section seeding meeting, after finishing third in Mission Division South.

If playing for a postseason spot wasn’t enough of an adrenaline rush, the Vikings played Saturday’s game on campus, where a sea of red and blue greeted them as they came out of the locker room.

North Salinas which improved to 7-3 overall, normally plays their home games at Rabobank Stadium, where it shares the facility with Palma and Hartnell College.

“To me there is nothing like playing a game on campus,” Ceralde said. “Walking out of your locker room and on to the field that we practice on each day. I’d love to see this happen on a more consistent basis. As an alumnus, it felt really prideful.”

Because North Salinas doesn’t have lights, it continues to play home games at Rabobank, a short bus ride from campus. But it’s 3-0 in games on its facilities over the past three years, where it has bleachers that can seat up to 1,000 spectators.

“When we came out of the locker room and saw the bleachers full with red and blue, it felt so good,” Ceralde said. “It’s what a home game should be, should look like.”

Adversity aside, the Vikings have gone 4-1 since former slotback/defensive back Izaiah Gonzalez moved to quarterback because of an injury.

The junior continues to evolve in the position, utilizing his athletic abilities in becoming a weapon with his arm and legs, as evident by Gonzalez producing a pair of touchdowns against Soledad.

Having opened the game with a 15-yard touchdown run, Gonzalez zeroed in on receiver Matthew Garcia for a 31-yard touchdown pass to stake North Salinas to a 19-0 halftime cushion.

“The Vikings’ defense, which has produced three shutouts this season, nearly had a fourth before Soledad (5-4) scored late in the fourth quarter.

Harvey Xiong, Jason Valencia and Nathan Orozco contributed to the defensive assault as North Salinas recorded six sacks, while freshman tailback Dyla Reynoso added a 65-yard touchdown run.

Watsonville 33, Alisal 26

The Wildcatz are playing the role of spoiler down the stretch, knocking Alisal out of first place in the Mission Division North.

The Trojans will now have to hope Watsonville returns the favor and beats Mission Division champion North County next week to earn a share of the title.

Alisal (3-2) can still earn a playoff spot by closing the season with a win over Scotts Valley, which it defeated last year in the Central Coast Section Division III semifinals.

In the event of finishing in a tie for second with St. Francis and Monte Vista, the Trojans hold the tiebreakers by virtue of beating both teams in league play.

The Wildcatz (2-3) erased an Alisal seven-point lead with a touchdown with 12 seconds left, then elected to go for two and the win, converting the two-point conversation.

On Alisal’s final possession, Watsonville intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown as time expired.

Jayden Durate accounted for all four touchdowns for Alisal, connecting twice with Kiki Jacinto on scoring tosses, while rushing for a pair of touchdowns.

Alvarez 24, Hollister 10

Hold off on those suggestions that the Eagles don’t belong in the Gabilan Division, or the assumption that they are moving to the Mission Division next fall.

While one win doesn’t necessarily signal a revival, all of a sudden Alvarez has put itself in the playoff conversation after snapping a five-game losing streak with a win over Hollister in its final home game.

If the Eagles (3-6) can close the season with a win over Palma — a program they have never beaten in their nearly three-decade tenure — they would finish no worse than fifth in the Gabilan Division.

Five teams from the Gabilan Division have reached the postseason since its inception, with the fifth going in as an at-large entry based on points. The Eagles would have the tiebreaker advantages over Palma and Hollister.

“It is a big game,” Alvarez first-year coach Ben Newman said. “Alvarez has never beaten Palma. Palma is going for a 40th straight playoff appearance. We’re both in rebuilding stages.”

The last time Alvarez reached the postseason was in 2015.

Ironically, the Eagles’ (3-5 overall) only Gabilan Division win last season was a 26-23 decision over Hollister.

Having dropped a gut-wrenching 23-22 decision to Aptos last week, the Eagles showed their resilience in bouncing back with their biggest win of the season.

Tied at seven after a touchdown run from quarterback Abel Bailon, the Eagles took a lead at halftime on a 1-yard touchdown run from Edgar Chavez.

When Emmanuel Marquez kicked a field goal, Alvarez had a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Of course, the program has been in this position before, falling to Aptos and North County after holding leads in the final 12 minutes.

This time the Eagles didn’t squander a lead, instead extending it when 1,000-yard rusher Roman Garcia scored from 1-yard out to give them a 14-point advantage with 3:11 left in the game.

Pacific Grove 35, Rancho San Juan 0

The Breakers still have a pulse, keeping their postseason hopes alive by snapping a two-game losing streak.

While Pacific Grove can’t finish any higher than third in the Mission Division South, upsetting Carmel next week in the “The Shoe” game would give them seven wins, which would put them in the conversation for a CCS at-large berth.

“The important thing during the bye week was to heal up,” Pacific Grove coach Jeff Gray said. “We ran the ball the way we wanted to and mixed in enough passes to be effective. We needed to get back to what we do well.”

Having dropped its last two games, in which it had given up its most points of the season in successive games, Pacific Grove posted its first shutout of the year to improve to 6-3 overall.

Scoring has been a problem this fall for the youthful Trailblazers, who have been held without a point in six of their nine losses, stretching their losing streak to 16 games.

Pacific Grove collected three touchdowns on the ground with running back Gideon Llantero rushing for his 12th of the year. Garret Kuska and Christian Navarro added touchdown runs as well.

Brody Edmonds has now tossed touchdown passes in seven of the team’s nine games, connecting with Andrew Nimri on a 20-yard scoring strike in the first half.

Edmonds, who split time last year behind center as a sophomore, became the first Pacific Grove quarterback to throw for over 1,000 yards since 2018.

Gonzales 42, Marina 13

The Spartans are one win away from improvement in the win column for the fourth straight year after going on the road and beating Marina at Seaside High.

Of course, all of Gonzales’ games this year have been away from campus as renovations on its stadium and field stripped them of a home game this season.

A win in their season finale over Harbor, which is tentatively scheduled for Salinas High next Friday, would give the Spartans their first winning season since 2019.

Ely Cisneros ran for over 100 yards and three touchdowns, scoring on runs of 1, 6 and 6 yards as Gonzales built a 35-0 lead. He came into the game with six rushing touchdowns on the season.

Ray Blanco and Tony Garcia also added touchdown runs for the Spartans (5-4), as did lineman Dominique Montiel, who entered the game in a short-yardage situation and plowed in from 1-yard out.

Raju David rushed for a touchdown for Marina (2-7), while Elan Espinosa tossed a scoring pass to Titus Calvera. Defensive tackle Javier Cuellar had an interception.

Harker 58, Trinity 0

Playing with just eight players after the first quarter in 8-man football, and seven in the fourth quarter because of injuries, the Warriors closed their season, falling to Harker of Sunnyvale.

Daniel Dirkes rushed for 62 yards for Trinity, while Jahmir Flores finished with 44 yards on the ground, as well as a team-high 12 tackles on defense.

Trinity, which did not win a game on the field last year, and endured a coaching change 72 hours before the season started this fall, more than doubled its win total from the previous two seasons, finishing the year 3-5.

Monte Vista 50, Seaside 7

The Spartans fell to 1-8 on the season as Monte Vista kept its Mission Division North title hopes alive.

Freshman quarterback Elijah Romero connected with Julius Escort in the second half for Seaside’s only touchdown.

The Spartans will close the season next Saturday at 2 p.m., hosting Monterey in the annual Battle of the Bay.