“I think we played well and it was a big ball game for us,” said Kingsville head coach Terry Carrier. “We knew they had a good record and coming in we knew we didn’t have the greatest record but we knew we had prepared really well this whole season and we knew we were ready for this ball game. Our guys were ready because we knew the district championship was on the line tonight.”
“Hats off to La Feria they’re a great team, very well coached and we knew the kind of team we going to have to play, but our guys came out and played really good for four quarters.”
Kingsville struck first capitalizing on mistakes by the Lions scoring on a safety and touchdown to give them a 9-0 lead with 2:58 remaining in the first.
Running back Roger Arkadie had a big game for the Brahmas racking up 103 yards against a tough Lions defense that held Kingsville to 208 total yards.
“Roger has been playing really well and our offensive line been blocking really well for Roger,” said Carrier. “I think he’s hit 100 yards in every game almost, but he’s seeing the holes and hitting them tough.
“He’s a tough runner but it all goes back to the offensive line doing a good job.”
After the half, down 19-7 in the fourth, La Feria’s Isaac Galpin connected with Julian Trevino on a 37-yard touchdown pass closing the margin to 19-14 with 10:14 left in the game.
La Feria’s defense shut down the Brahmas and gave the offense two more opportunities, but the Kingsville defense denied the Lions on two critical fourth-down conversions.
“Our defense worked really hard all week and they game planned really well to the tendencies of their offense,” said Carrier. “We kind of new what they were going to give us and they knew our backs were against the wall because our offense was struggling at times and they knew they needed to buckle down and get the ball back.
“All together they just played really well and stuck together.”
Going into the game a win was crucial for both teams.
For the Lions a win would have solidified at least a share of the district title heading into the final game against Zapata next week. But instead the loss leaves the Lions at 6-2, 2-1 and hoping that Grulla (1-6, 1-1) or Hidalgo (2-8, 0-3) can pull off an upset.
The win improves Kingsville’s record to 4-4, 2-0 with a clear path to the district crown.