DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
DONNA — When Luis Dougherty watches his son Edward at football practice, he sees nothing he doesn’t already know. It just happens to be stuff people are just now noticing in the Donna High junior quarterback.
“He loves the challenge,” Luis said as he watched from the bleachers during a hot late Tuesday afternoon. “He loves to be the underdog and he feeds off that. He makes football personal, and I think that’s what really makes him tick.”
So far, it’s been exactly what the Redskins have needed.
Dougherty has been the ideal game manager for coach Ramiro Leal’s I-formation offense since starting quarterback Amonte Bowen broke his collarbone in late August. Bowen is expected to be out for the rest of the season.
The 5-foot-7, 120-pound Dougherty has completed 56 percent of his passes for 224 yards and one touchdown to no interceptions, leads the team in rushing — 46 carries, 186 yards, two touchdowns — and already has a comeback win to his credit in leading the Redskins to a 1-1 record heading into district play next week.
“I’m coming into my first year on varsity, ready to make a statement,” Dougherty said. “The starting spot is a perfect way to do that. My mentality has been all about winning.
“Just show that I’m capable of getting the job done.”
Leal always knew Dougherty was capable. It was a matter of how quickly he could pick up things, having less than a week between the final scrimmage when Bowen got hurt and Week 1’s home opener against Brownsville Veterans Memorial.
But once Leal watched Dougherty throw a perfect fade to Jonathan Sandoval on third down late in the fourth quarter against the Chargers to set up a score to put the Redskins ahead for good, he knew he had something.
“I didn’t think we’d be where we are now, with him leading a comeback and putting us in position to win both games,” Leal said. “I think we’re ahead of where we thought we were going to be. It’s hard to say he’s ever been the backup. He doesn’t look it.
“We just need to keep improving and keep getting better.”
Leal has enough faith in Dougherty to where he will keep giving him the ball if that’s what it takes to make plays.
Dougherty had 28 carries in a Week 2 14-13 loss at Weslaco High; a Donna High quarterback has never ran the ball that much in Leal’s 26 years in the program.
Leal said that has provided a different dimension to the offense. Instead of just quarterback handoffs to the tailback, which removes the quarterback from the play and has the offense playing 10-on-11, the running back can now be an extra blocker since Dougherty can run it himself.
“If you would’ve asked me if we’d run him almost 30 times against Weslaco, I’d say no way,” Leal said. “You don’t want to bang him up. But that’s what’s open and we went with it.
“It’s a numbers game. And because he can throw, now we have a multiple threat.”
Dougherty said he has “stepped up” his leadership, focusing on picking up his team when it’s down. He’s also been a star pupil of Bowen’s.
They have been good friends since middle school, and Bowen is always at practices, tutoring his understudy.
“I’ve learned a lot from him as a leader,” Dougherty said. “He talks to me, gives me advice. When he got hurt, I saw him after his evaluation and he said it was up to me now. He told me he believed in me. That’s huge coming from someone like him.”
Like Luis, Bowen simply knows what others are just now realizing about the Redskins’ precocious signal-caller.
“I always want to win,” Dougherty said. “I’m a bad loser. I’ll do whatever it takes; just give me a chance. That’s what drives me, to win ballgames and just make a name for myself.”