By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
St. Joseph Academy and Port Isabel will face different tests in Week 2.
The Bloodhounds play host to Lyford at Canales Field, and the Tarpons hit the road to face Rio Grande City at Joe R. Sanchez Stadium in Rio Grande City.
St. Joseph defeated Lyford last year on the road, 38-26, but St. Joseph coach Tino Villarreal expects a different game this year.
“They’ve improved, they were young last year,” he said. “I think we’ll have our work cut out for us again in back-to-back weeks against top notch teams. We expect a battle. It’s our first home game,we’ll definitely get after it.”
The Bloodhounds’ Kai Money and Anthony Cantu combined for 396 yards on the ground and six touchdowns last week against Raymondville.
“We preached running the football, and we were able to do that. We knew they were expecting us to pass,” Villarreal said. “That’s some heavy duty yardage. We were able to do that, and that was a big plus for us, we had trouble running the football (in scrimmages). We need to continue doing that well this week.”
Lyford hasn’t forgotten the game last year and is focusing on the defensive game plan.
“We’re expecting a hard-fought game,” Lyford coach Jaime Infante said. “They’re explosive offensively, and we hope we can contain them, slow them down a little bit. Hopefully control the ball and keep it out of their hands. And keep them from scoring too many times.”
With somewhat conflicting styles, Infante thinks the game could come down to mistakes.
“I think the key for both teams is going to be execution,” he said. “Execute and keep the mistakes down. If you can keep the mistakes and the penalties down, I think that’s going to be to your advantage.”
Port Isabel faces a slightly different Rio Grande City team than last year.
Last season, the Tarpons defeated the Rattlers 36-27 at home. But Rio Grande City has a better defense this season.
“They are running the ball a little more than they did last year. They have some play-action passes that open up off the run,” Port Isabel coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “They played good defense against Ingleside, who’s always in the playoffs, always has a good football team, and they shut them out.
“They execute pretty well, and we have to do the same if we’re going to have a chance.”
Stumbaugh was pleased with the team’s effort in Week 1. He knows the team needs to improve against Rio Grande City .
“We have to be able to control the ball and eliminate our mistakes,” he said. “We have to take care of the football and play good defense.”
But regardless of the outcome, Stumbaugh wants to see the improvement on a weekly basis.
“We just want to be 1-0 at the end of the week, that’s the goal,” he said. “We’re trying to be better than we were last week.
“I thought we took a step forward last week, and we need to take another step forward this week.”
Rio Grande City coach Carlos Longoria could not be reached for comment.
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.