The Hilmar High School varsity football team is heading into conference play undefeated after pulling away late on the road against Atwater on Friday night.

Lucas Belo scored three touchdowns on offense and made five tackles for loss at linebacker, and Hunter Greunke rushed for over 100 yards as the Yellowjackets defeated the Falcons by a 30-14 score at Dave Honey Stadium.

The Yellowjackets improved to 4-0 under first-year head coach Mark Santos, the best start by the program since the 2021 team went unbeaten through its first five games. The streak will be on the line next week in the Trans-Valley League opener against Ripon at Wes Stouffer Field. The Indians lost by a 49-17 score to Tracy in its final non-conference tune up Friday.

After contributing to a pair of tackles on Atwater’s first drive of the game, Belo recorded Hilmar’s first two scores of the night on nearly identical play calls.

With senior starting quarterback Cohen Felber resting to nurse a minor ankle injury, the Yellowjackets called upon junior Bryce Johnson to man the backfield. Midway through the first quarter, Johnson fired a screen pass towards Belo, who undercut an Atwater defender near the far sideline, and ran 40 yards to the end zone.

After the Falcons tied the game at seven when Charlie Whitby hauled in a 17-yard touchdown on the ensuing possession, Belo capped a seven-play, four-minute drive with a 5-yard scoring run to make it 13-7. Atwater took a brief lead when Hudson Pimentel broke loose for a 57-yard rushing touchdown.

In response, Johnson and Belo were tasked with remaking magic. Indeed, the second attempt at a chunk screen play was far more dramatic and improbable. Instead of cutting inside towards his quarterback, Belo stutter-stepping and remained on the outside. The slick footwork was enough to make the defender hesitate and just miss an opportunity to intercept the ball. Belo then bobbled and eventually secured the pigskin before racing 57 yards to the house.

“After I cut in on him on the first touchdown, I knew he was probably thinking that I was going to do it again,” said Belo. “I took that little stutter step and it slowed him down a little bit. I got it, and all I was thinking about was scoring.

“I knew we were going to have a couple key players out, so I knew I had to step up and do my part and just go 100% on defense and on offense. I'm team captain, so I have to make sure to be a leader and make sure my team is in check no matter who is out there. As long as everybody is doing good, we’re going to win, and that’s all I care about.”

Greunke shares a similar selfless attitude. At 5-foot-7, 165 pounds, the running back was key in extending drives throughout the night by running through (and even bouncing off) contact at and near the line of scrimmage. By the final horn, he led all players with 108 yards on 18 attempts.

“I'm a bit smaller,” Greunke acknowledged, “So I need to be more elusive. I just try to see a hole, hit it and then try to bounce it outside to open grass. Nothing is easy. Every game we play is a dogfight, but we worked hard, played the way we did and got that win.”

Senior Blake Vitorino, who kicked a game-winning 18-yard field goal last week against Palma, extended the Hilmar lead to 23-14 with a 44-yarder midway through the fourth quarter. Junior Adam Branco tallied the final points of the contest with a 4-yard rushing touchdown with just under three minutes left on the clock.

Helping keep the Falcons offense in check throughout the night was senior defensive lineman Dominick Clayton, who logged two tackles for loss and a sack. Junior Omar Hernandez and senior Justin Ortiz, a Fresno State commit at offensive line, were also in on sacks of speedy Atwater quarterback Tyler Curtis, who was limited to 39 yards rushing and 92 yards passing, all to Whitby.

“We need to keep working as hard as we can at practice and try to keep winning as much as we can,” Greunke said. ​​”We're going for it all.”