DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
PSJA High, considered by many to be favorites in District 32-5A, lost 14-7 to rival PSJA North last week.
It was a defensive-minded affair — similar to last season’s 13-7 decision in favor of the Bears — and notable if only because the Raiders were 0-10 last season, had not won since Oct. 19, 2012, and were marking the debut of coach Jorge Pena.
Another instance where you never know what you’re going to get when it comes to rivalry games.
“We knew they’d come after us after last year,” PSJA High coach Steve Marroquin said. “Credit to Coach Pena and his staff.”
PSJA High was strong defensively, despite a secondary with three new starters (Julian Garza, Troy Flores and Kevin Cruz) and two new starters up front in Rollie Suarez and Jonathan Garza. Questions Marroquin had defensively were answered.
Offensively, however, the Bears struggled. They mustered just 143 total yards, failed to run the ball effectively and struggled at quarterback, playing four. Starter Andrew Castaneda went 7-for-23 passing for 79 yards with three interceptions.
But Marroquin did not place blame there. Instead, he noted the 15 penalties, many of which killed promising drives.
On one instance, after going up 7-0 in the first quarter, the Bears had 1st-and-goal from the Raiders’ 6 before accruing 30 yards in penalties that set them back considerably.
“We moved the ball well, we just shot ourselves in the foot,” Marroquin said. “You won’t win games like that, and that’s what we need to address. We were getting personal fouls, holding … we had a lack of focus and we didn’t execute.”
Marroquin said the Bears have to play more of a team game, have to be more prepared. There were pleasant surprises, like defenders B.K. Thomas and Ramon Valero, receiver Nathan Sifuentes and center Alex Rodriguez, but it’s not enough.
“I’m hoping this serves as a wake-up call that we can’t take anything for granted,” Marroquin said.
WINNING THROUGH LOSING
Mercedes fell 28-0 to Calallen last week, but as usual, the Tigers got a lot more out of that game than even most wins they’ll have this season.
“We got what we needed to,” Mercedes coach Roger Adame Jr. said. “When you play an opponent like that, you find out right off the bat what you need to work on. There’s some talented teams down here, but it’s different going up against a team like Calallen.”
The Tigers dropped balls, including one in the end zone, lacked communication up front offensively and committed three turnovers. But, on the other hand, Adame liked his team’s effort and physicality, praised its conditioning, and said the route-running was strong.
Often times, plays came down to Calallen’s bigger, stronger brutes beating the smaller Tigers off the ball. Not much to be done about that.
“We want to go into every game and win, obviously, but we want to get the best result possible,” said Adame, who added his team will focus more on winning third downs heading into this week’s home game against McAllen Rowe. “We want these guys playing against competition you might not see until playoffs. We want to see how they respond.”
Individually, Adame said the strong play of receiver Brandon Gutierrez, running back Isaac Vela, defensive back Roel Garcia and linebacker David Alvarado stood out.
WITH THE BIG BOYS
PSJA Southwest dominated former district rival Valley View 42-0 in its season opener last week, amassing 329 total yards to Valley View’s 69.
Much of the second half was played with Javelinas from the junior varsity. Because Valley View does not have enough players to field a JV team, Southwest coach Jesus Reyes gave time to a handful of JV players in the second half against Valley View’s varsity.
“We called Los Fresnos, Harlingen and just couldn’t get a JV game,” Reyes said. “So we dressed out six or so JV kids, and even had our JV center and JV defensive backs playing the third and fourth quarters.”
The Javs improved to 3-0 in season-openers.