Not the San Benito Greyhounds.
Though the final score suggests otherwise, San Benito had to shake off plenty of rust coming off its bye week, notably at the start. However, a spirited outing from its defense along with big plays enabled the ‘Hounds to a 52-28 thrashing of Brownsville Hanna at Bobby Morrow Stadium on Friday night in the Valley Morning Star’s Game of the Week.
San Benito’s defense blanked Hanna in the first half, which allowed the offense to find its footing and the cohesive effort produced what head coach Dan Gomez ultimately wanted: A win.
“Our defense was the spark plug for us tonight,” Gomez said. “They were definitely the ignition to the engine tonight. Hanna came out to play. But what’s important to us is getting to 1-0 (in district).”
The ‘Hounds (3-1 overall, 1-0 district) overcame that sluggish start and led just 7-0 after one quarter on a two-yard scoring plunge from Jonathan Gutierrez. Penalties and some lapses plagued San Benito in its quest to start fast as it had in its previous three outings, but big plays from the likes of Richard Moreno, John Belmares, Smiley Escamilla and a host of others kept the Golden Eagles at bay more than enough.
Thanks to that bullying of Hanna, the San Benito lead eventually ballooned to 21-0 in the second on two touchdowns from Armando Medrano (26- and 5-yard TD passes from J.R. Gaitan). Medrano, who’d been held to zero catches over the last couple weeks, broke back onto the scene, totaling four touchdowns and 176 yards on nine grabs.
“We had to start off district strong,” Medrano said. “We wanted to make a statement to the rest of the district and the Valley. Our defense stepped up and we fed off of that and our coaches motivated us and kept us focused.”
San Benito had just 186 yards at intermission before exploding in the second half and notching another 400-yard benchmark.
Hanna came out strong to start the second half and got an eight-yard score from Jaime Gonzalez to cut the deficit to 21-7, but then San Benito stepped on the gas.
Gaitan found Xavier Martinez on a big 33-yard conversion to set up a 43-yard score to the man, of the hour, Medrano. Then defensive back Mario Valdez swooped in and recorded a dandy of an interception, taking it 55 yards to the house and extending the lead to 35-7 with 2:13 left in the third quarter.
Hanna got a two-yard TD from Gonzalez, but San Benito had answers. Later after having his own long TD run wiped away due to penalty, Gaitan shared the wealth and hit Medrano again, a 49-yarder, to make it 42-14 early in the fourth.
Then later after an Eagle fumble, Alejandro Lugo booted a 35-yard field goal, and Gaitan closed out the scoring with his 1-yard TD sprint.
San Benito now takes its show on the road to face Los Fresnos next week at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium.