By FREDDY GONZALEZ
Staff Writer
With two games left in La Feria’s regular season the chase for the district title is in full swing.
Tonight’s match up against the Kingsville Brahmas goes a long way in determining whether the Lions can at the very least clinch a share of the District 16-4A DI title or nothing at all.
“They’re last years district champs and they’re a playoff caliber team and we’ll see where we stand,” said La Feria head coach Salinas. “They are one of the better teams in the district. They’re very big and a very physical team, so we have to be ready to go.”
Commanding the offense for the Lions is junior quarterback Isaac Galpin who has passed for 849 yards from 64-127 attempts. Overall the offense has racked up 2550 yards through out the season, with 1691 yards coming from the running game.
Riding a four game winning streak the Lions will hope to extend it to five, with their only blemish of the season coming against rivals Mercedes in a sloppy 28-14 loss.
Sophomore Adrian Torres leads the team with 545 on 99 carries, followed by Russ Gonzalez (433, 90 carries), and Galpin with 392 yards on 48 touches.
For the Kingsville Brahmas running back Roger Arkadie leads the team and district in rushing with 879 yards,nine touchdowns, on 163 attempts.
Kingsville comes into the game on a two game winning streak beating Ingleside 22-21 and Zapata 21-20.
“This is a district championship game with implications tied in to it,” said Salinas. “ Its going to be fun, we haven’t had this kind of a big game in a while and we’re ready to be part of that whole atmosphere.”
“These kids have worked really hard to get this accomplished .”
At 6-1, 2-0 the the Lions are a the top of the district standings, followed by Kingsville (3-4, 1-0), Zapata (6-1, 1-1), Grulla (0-6, 0-1), and Hidalgo (2-7, 0-2).
As of now La Feria are already assured a spot in the postseason, but a victory would mean the worst the Lions could do is a co-district or tri-district championship.
If La Feria can get win then that would setup a huge game against the Hawks in Zapata.
However, if the Lions lose then the Brahmas would be at the top of the standings, with only Grulla and Hidalgo standing between them and the outright district crown.