By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The games played in August have long since passed, and so have the ones in September.
As the 2014 football season extends further into the “money month” of October, the Port Isabel Tarpons and St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds anxiously await the start of their district schedules this week with strong intentions of building upon the non-district success each team has experienced so far.
On Friday, the Bloodhounds (4-1) play host to San Antonio Christian (3-2) in their TAPPS Division I District 2 opener at 7 p.m. at Canales Field, and the state-ranked Tarpons (5-0) travel to Progreso (1-4) for their District 16-4A opener at 7:30 p.m. at Red Ant Stadium.
It’s been so far, so good, for Port Isabel as the Tarpons have brought in a number of newcomers to replace the 28 seniors who graduated from last year’s 12-1 ballclub.
“We’ve done what we needed to do (to win) every week,” said Tarpons senior running back J.J. Gonzalez, who is his team’s second-leading rusher with 585 yards and five touchdowns. “Every week we’ve proved that we’re Port Isabel and carried on the (winning) tradition. Now (going into district), we just need to keep our heads down, work hard and stay humble, plus make sure we hit things hard in every practice and in every game.”
In other action this week involving Metro-area teams, the slate of games begins at 7 p.m. Thursday with a pair of District 32-5A contests as Porter (2-3, 1-1 district) takes on PSJA Southwest (3-2, 1-1) at Sams Memorial Stadium and Pace (1-4, 0-2) visits PSJA High (3-2, 1-1).
District 32-6A games on tap at 7:30 p.m. Friday will find Rivera (0-5, 0-2) playing Lopez (0-5, 0-2) at Sams, Los Fresnos (3-2, 1-1) visiting Harlingen South (2-3, 1-1) and Harlingen High (3-2, 2-0) traveling to San Benito (3-2, 2-0) for the “Battle of the Arroyo.” Also in 32-6A action, it’s Brownsville Veterans Memorial (4-1, 2-0) vs. Hanna (1-3, 0-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Sams in The Herald’s Game of the Week.
Just like Port Isabel, SJA has had to replace a number of talented players who graduated from last year’s team. The newcomers for the Bloodhounds appear to be fitting in well as SJA enters the most critical part of its season.
“It wasn’t a surprise (at all that the new players have fit in), of course not,” SJA senior inside linebacker Daniel Matar said. “We knew about them (and what they could do) even before the season began. We’ve taken the younger players under our wing. They’re part of our team, and they know that. There’s no seniority, or ‘I’m older than you.’ They’re like our little brothers, and we protect them.
“These (new) guys are phenomenal athletes, and at the end of the day, everyone who plays football is a phenomenal athlete,” Matar added. “When you have the most heart (like these guys), things are going to get done. We have a lot of focus around here with a great coaching staff, and those are the things that make the St. Joseph program real strong. We don’t worry about who has graduated.”
Both the Bloodhounds and Tarpons are coming off bye weeks, and the last game they played was actually against each other Sept. 26 in Port Isabel. The Tarpons prevailed 44-21 and stayed unbeaten while handing the Bloodhounds their first loss.
“I think the first half of the season has gone well for us,” SJA coach Christian Putegnat said. “We got a lot of things accomplished that we wanted to get accomplished. It’s maybe even a little better than we realistically expected considering the good teams that we’ve played. With that being said, we’ve still had some hiccups and minor things that we’ve needed to correct. We spent our bye week trying to get those things corrected so that we can go into district firing on all cylinders.
“It all seems to be working our way so far,” he added. “We’ve been fortunate to have the players we have and to get the play we’ve been receiving from them. We’re happy about where we’re at, but at the same time we still have a lot of work to do and we need to make ourselves better.”
That same sentiment of getting better is voiced by Port Isabel coach Monty Stumbaugh.
“We focused a little more on our passing game (during the bye week),” Stumbaugh said. “We know we’ve got to do a better job with it. We also worked hard on our basic fundamentals that we really have to be good at, plus our conditioning.
“Yes, we’re 5-0, but it really doesn’t get us anywhere in our tough district,” he added. “We have to be ready to play every Friday night, so we’re going to come in with who we think our best people are (as starters) and give it a run. To this point, we’ve been mixing and matching and haven’t played one full game yet with all our (regular) starters on the field at one time.
“We’re making some mistakes that a young team makes, but the effort has been great. Our guys are playing hard and getting after it. We’ve had a lot of bright spots and kids step up. We just have to eliminate the little mistakes. Of course, it’s great to go into our district with some momentum, but now everyone is 0-0. Our kids understand that, and now it’s time for the second season. We have to take care of business so we can get to the third season (of playoffs).”
Added Pedro Gonzalez, the Tarpons’ senior middle linebacker, “Don’t sleep on us because we’re going to come hard.”