By FREDDY GONZALEZ
Staff Writer
From today on every game counts. As District 16-4A DII gets under way, Raymondville prepares to host their district opener against Orange Grove tonight at Burnett Stadium.
“Everybody’s excited and in an upbeat mood about the game,” said Raymondville’s head coach Frank Cantu.
“We ended last week with a really good second half. Offensively we moved the ball and defensively we held them scoreless in the second half.”
“We put a really good half together and hopefully we can continue that.”
After last weeks narrow loss to Sinton, the Bearkats are looking to correct some of the errors that cost them opportunities to win the match.
“We had some really good opportunities to score against Sinton, but we had three big turnovers that cost us,” said Cantu.
On the offensive side of the ball the Bearkats will be counting on seniors Christopher Trevino and Miguel Tristan to lead the team.
Trevino comes into the game with 568 yards rushing and 429 yards passing on 32 of 59 attempts. Tristan, on the other hand, leads the team with 645 yards on 65 carries. Overall the team has rushed for 1447 yards and passed for another 429.
“We want to come out a little bit more aggressive. Maybe not 100 percent of the time but we want to pick and choose our spots,” said coach Cantu.
“We do what we do and their really good at what they do, but we feel like we’ve got a really good game plan against them and it’s going to be a really good game.”
On defense, the Bearkats have allowed 544 yards rushing and 974 yards passing this season. While Raymondville has been great against the run, the team has allowed an average of 194 yards through the air.
Statistically, Orange Grove is a passing team with quarterback Hondo Harris passing for nearly 1400 yards, most of them to his two main targets Christian Webb and Chris Lauger.
But coach Cantu seems to have his team prepared for the Bulldogs.
“Defensively we have to get started a lot sooner,” said coach Cantu. “We gave up 14 (points) quick ones to Kingsville and then we played an excellent game after that. We came out to Sinton and we give 14 (points) really quick ones to Sinton and gave up one more before the half. Then we came back out and played lights out in the second half.”
“(Overall) we got to get a better start offensively, we got to get a better start defensively, come out sharper and get started a lot sooner.”