By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
St. Joseph Academy was in a dogfight with Austin St. Michael’s from the start.
The Bloodhounds battled back and forth with the Crusaders and completed a second-half comeback during a 29-26 victory against Austin St. Michael’s on Friday night at Canales Field in Brownsville in The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week for Week 9.
“It’s incredible,” Money said. “Ever since two-a-days, the coaches have preached to us when it comes to district, the games are tougher and its going to take a full 48 minutes from everybody on the team to come out victorious, and that’s what we had to do (Friday).”
Money had 200 yards of offense — 135 rushing and 65 passing — and accounted for three touchdowns for St. Joseph.
The St. Michael’s offense stalled on its first drive but received a 32-yard field goal from Pedro Tijerina. Later in the quarter, the Crusaders took the lead when Gabriel Vondrak scored on a 21-yard run to make it 9-8.
During the second quarter, St. Michael’s added a 1-yard touchdown run by De’Sean Johnson to take a 16-8 lead.
The Bloodhounds answered a few minutes later as Mario Garcia scored on a 15-yard run.
During the second half, the Bloodhounds’ defense stepped up. When Cole Conner had to exit the game with a possible concussion in the first half, Garcia stepped into his linebacker position and helped stifle the Crusaders’ offensive production.
“Hats off to the defense,” St. Joseph coach Tino Villarreal said. “This was team football, it looked good and the defense played their hearts out.”
Midway through the third quarter, Money gave the Bloodhounds the 21-19 lead after the 67-yard run.
It remained that way until late in the quarter when Money scored his second rushing touchdown to take a 29-26 lead.
“We knew if we could put the ball in (Money’s) hands off the edge, we were going to be in a good spot in the fourth quarter,” Villarreal said. “We kept setting it up with inside runs, and we knew when the game was on the line we were going to let No. 12 run on the outside.”
“We didn’t play well. That wasn’t our team out there (Friday),” St. Michael’s coach Benjamin Ortiz said. “When it comes down to it, that’s on me. It’s bad coaching decisions and my team fought hard, but I didn’t have them in the right spots.”
“Just get back to what we do and prepare better,” Ortiz said. “(Coach) Tino (Villarreal) had a good game plan. He came out here and did it. His kids were fired up. They made it happen, and they got the win. Taking nothing away from them, Brownsville (St. Joseph) is a good team and they showed it (Friday).”
Villarreal said the team would celebrate briefly before getting refocused to take on another tough district opponent next week, San Antonio Central Catholic, with a chance to earn a piece of the district title.
“We get to enjoy it tonight, but we have practice at 8 in the morning,” he said. “I tell them every week we’re playing the district championship. (Saturday) at 8 a.m. we’re going to get started and get to work right away.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.