By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
After starting out the season playing pretty well, Porter has slipped a little during the past few weeks.
After a loss to Pace in Week 8, the Cowboys look to get back on track against Donna High, which is coming off an overtime win against PSJA High. The two squads face one another in a District 32-5A matchup tonight at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Once again this week, the Cowboys face a familiar foe, particularly for Porter coach Tom Campos.
“They’re traditionally a good team. I coached there for a year, so I know exactly,” he said. “I got a year under my belt over there as an offensive coordinator. Those kids growing up want to be a Donna Redskin, so (there’s) a lot of tradition. The staff is made up of Donna guys, and they have a lot of pride in their school.”
The Redskins (3-3, 2-2) are similar to the Cowboys (2-5, 1-3) on both sides of the ball. Campossaid practice was much easier to simulate this week, especially for the defense.
“They base everything off the run like we do,” Campos said. “Offensively, they’re hard-nosed, have a huge offensive line. (It’s) something they hang their hat on. They’ve thrown the ball pretty well, pretty accurate, although itsnot what they would like to do. They’ve done it more this year out of necessity, but it’s caught them in a few bad situations. Defensively, they run 4-2-5 low cover-3 look, they play with four down linemen (as we do on defense).”
Even with the similarities and familiarities of the two squads, Campos expects a better team coming in than their record may indicate.
“They’ve played the majority of the tough teams in the district up front,” he said. “They got a big win last week when most people were counting them out. They definitely have some momentum coming into this week.”
For the Cowboys to get back to their winning ways, they have to first fix what has ailed them the past few weeks.
“Finishing drives,” Campossaid. “I can count on two hands how many drives we’ve had in scoring position for at least a field goal in the last three weeks. We have to overcome that. We have to find something to get us over that hump.”
The Cowboys’ defense has strayed as well.
“Defensively, we’re right there, we’ve showed what we could do early in the year,” Campossaid. “But we’ve digressed a little bit as far as production on defense. We need to get back in that groove and make sure where we’re supposed to be.”
Donna High coach Ramiro Leal could not be reached for comment for this story.
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.