By ARMANDO GARZA
Special to the Star
MERCEDES – It seemed when the lights came on and the coaches were on the sideline, the Mercedes Tigers started to play their preferred style of football.
For Port Isabel, it was the complete opposite.
In their scrimmage at Tiger Stadium on Friday evening, the two squads played virtually even for the first portion, which was a controlled format. It was close for the most part as the Tigers prevailed 3-1. Then, two live quarters commenced and it was a different story for the Tigers, who flexed their muscle in a 14-0 decision.
“We were a little sloppy when we first started,” Mercedes head coach Roger Adame said. “There was improvement from last week but we have some stuff to clean up. Defensively, the boys played their hearts out. And when it came into the game-like situation, we were able to move the ball well.”
At the onset, the Tarpons played tough defense against the 5A Tigers, who couldn’t get on the board thanks to a forced fumble and a couple of sputtering drives. Mercedes did the same on D as Damian Ledesma and Jordan Aguilar each snared interceptions to snuff out PI drives.
The Tigers finally opened the scoring on a one-yard plunge from quarterback Rene Presas before Port Isabel promptly answered with its lone TD of the night, a 40-yarder from QB Trey Mock on what appeared to be a busted play.
But Mercedes came back with a short scoring pass from backup D.J. Saenz to Joel Garcia and Presas added a two-yard dive when he re-entered the game just before the end of the controlled portion.
As the lights came on for two live quarters of action, Port Isabel continued to get in its own way with several fumbled center-quarterback exchanges and penalties and miscues. The Tarpons are a young group and showed that youth and the field felt probably felt 500 yards long for Big Blue.
“We didn’t play with heart. We had fumbled snaps, fumbled pitches, get the wrong set, called the wrong play, I could go on and on,” a visibly upset PI coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “It was not a good display of football—at all. That will be corrected on Monday.”
Defensively, Mercedes continued to thwart Tarpon drives and capitalize on their mistakes. Junior linebacker Fabricio “Fabric” Quintanilla was a force all night, making play after play and displaying maximum effort time and again.
“I loved Fabric Quintanilla who plays with a motor that I haven’t seen here—ever,” Adame said. “He was chasing people from the backside. You don’t see a linebacker like that often.”
In the live half, Mercedes got a six-yard score from Isaac Vela along with a nice 31-yard burst from Jesus Rios to close things out.
The Tigers will open the season next Friday against Calallen while Port Isabel will take on Grulla.