SANTA YNEZ - "This is our Super Bowl, baby!," Mina Michael of Santa Ynez shouted right before the opening kickoff Friday night.

It was a big game for Morro Bay, too, however, and the visitors took a 56-21 victory at Santa Ynez High School's Pirates Field. The game was veteran Santa Ynez coach Ken Gruendyke's last.

"Don't wanna leave this," Gruendyke said as he hugged his players, many of them teary-eyed, after the final game of his 33-year football coaching career at Santa Ynez, the last 16 of them as head coach. "Don't wanna leave this."

Gruendyke's teams won three Los Padres League championships during his head coaching reign. This year's squad finished 2-4-0 in the Los Padres League and 3-6-1 overall.

As for the Pirates from Morro Bay (3-3-0, 6-4-0), they are hoping they played themselves into the lone Division X at-large playoff berth. They will know Sunday, when the playoff pairings come out.

Going into the game Morro Bay had the highest division ranking of any fourth-place team, seventh.

Santa Ynez got off to a promising start in its bid to send Gruendyke off on a winning note.

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Morro Bay defensive back Pat Haugen intercepted Santa Ynez quarterback Krys Cash's pass at the Morro Bay 9. But the Pirates from the south got the ball back when Michael picked off Morro Bay quarterback Robert Ellithorpe's pass at his 33 and returned it to the Morro Bay 48.

Nick Rivera ran for 14 yards on the first play after that, and the Pirates scored when Cash escaped a rush, rolled left and connected with Sean Trudgeon for a 15-yard touchdown pass.

At that point, "Doggone it, I thought 'we're going to be in a football game!,'" said Gruendyke.

But Morro Bay went on to rack up 555 yards of total offense - 339 rushing and 216 passing.

"They do what they do best," Gruendyke said. "They're a very physical team, and they wore us down.

"Hopefully, they'll get in the playoffs."

A big part of what Morro Bay does best is send Corey Stollmeyer for yardage behind a good offensive line. Stollmeyer picked up a total of 248 yards on 28 carries. He scored three touchdowns.

Another thing the Pirates from Morro Bay do well is play defense. After the Cash-to-Trudjeon touchdown, Morro Bay stifled Santa Ynez's offense until the fourth quarter.

Josh Hartman ran 62 yards on a fake punt for one score. Billy Peters connected with Hector Virgen for 59 yards for another.

Morro Bay came up with a total of five Santa Ynez turnovers. The Pirates picked off three Peters passes, with Haugen intercepting two passes on the evening.

As usual, the Pirates started Cash at quarterback and then moved him into the slot.

To the right, to the left, up the middle - fullback Steve Dover and the Morro Bay line blocked well for Stollmeyer wherever he ran, and Stollmeyer took advantage.

The visitors' play selection kept the home team's defense off balance all night. After hammering Santa Ynez with Stollmeyer or Dover (57 yards on 11 carries), Ellithorpe would fake a handoff to Stollmeyer in the backfield and then throw to an open receiver.

Brian Budd caught two passes, for 58 and 30 yards. The 30-yarder was for a touchdown and drew the ire of some of Gruendyke's assistants, since about eight minutes remained in the game when he caught it. There was no apparent animosity after the game, however.

Dover caught four passes, for 67 yards.

Before the game, Santa Ynez honored its seniors and then honored Gruendyke. "That made my year," he said.

As the public address was near the end of his words about Gruendyke, the coach shouted good-naturedly toward the press box, "It's cold! Let's play football."

Afterward, Gruendyke told his players, "I am so, so proud of you. You are a class act. You've done everything we've asked of you.

"Seniors....gonna miss ya. Juniors....be watchin' ya. Sophomores....be watchin' ya."

And that was it for an illustrious coaching career.

Nov. 13, 2004