BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — Before the first snap of the season, Edinburg North coach Rene Saenz hopes his team has already met its injury quota. During a scrimmage last week against Mission High, running backs Omar Acevedo and Ethan Vela suffered a broken collarbone on consecutive plays.
“We re-checked the pads right away,” Sanez said. “They were both wearing a brand new set of pads, so it wasn’t anything there. It was just a freak accident. It wasn’t anything malicious or a late hit. It was just bad luck.”
Vela, a sophomore, endured the more severe injury with a complete separation of the bone. He will be sidelined for six to seven weeks. Acevedo’s injury was less significant, but will still miss four to five weeks. The pair will be replaced by Jaime Guerra, a senior transfer from Edinburg Vela, and senior Juan Flores.
“It’s weird because Jaime broke his collarbone as well during spring training,” Saenz said. “He came out fresh in two-a-days. He’s a solid kid. Juan is a lot thicker. They’ll see equal time.”
A more concerning element than the Cougars’ lack of depth is their offensive line. That part of the game will be key in deciding the outcome of today’s season opener against Los Fresnos at Cats Memorial Stadium.
“If we’re making our blocks, we’ll have success,” Saenz said. “If we’re not making our blocks, we won’t have success. Los Fresnos gets after it every play, on both sides of the ball. They come off the ball so well, they’re already ahead of where they were last year. That’s what’s going to make or break the game for us, how our offensive and defensive lines respond.”
With an injured corps of backs and question marks on the offensive line, Edinburg North has found a silver lining in junior quarterback Cristian Espinoza, who enters 2015 as the lone man under center after splitting time a season ago. Saenz says Espinoza handled himself well during the scrimmage against Mission High.
“They bring the heat on every play,” Saenz said. “They’re always trying to get after the quarterback. I thought Cristian played well. He was patient, made his reads and didn’t force anything. His sense of awareness was there.”
LEVELHEADEDNESS
PSJA North coach Jorge Pena doesn’t have to get his kids excited for Friday’s game against PSJA High at PSJA Stadium. With a season-opening game against a cross-town rival, Pena has been trying to temper his team’s eagerness.
“I try to keep the emotion down to a minimum,” Pena said. “The important thing for me is to be real smart with your play. The kids have to know their assignments. They’ve been studying well. They just have to be able to execute and have less emotion in the game. I don’t want to burn kids out.”
The Raiders should have minimal hiccups regarding assignments as the team returns 14 starters from a season ago, including eight on the offensive side. PSJA North experienced the bulk of their learning curve in 2014, Pena’s first year employing the spread offense. After averaging 19 points per game through the first two weeks of the season, the Raiders would average 37 points the remainder of the season.
“I believe that we’ve picked up where we left off,” Pena said. “Offensively, we’re moving the ball a lot better than we did last year. We’ll be in mid-season form here pretty quick. Defensively, they’ve been a lot more comfortable. All the mistakes they made during the first scrimmage, they fixed during the second scrimmage.”
WOLVERINES DEBUT
PSJA Memorial coach Mike Uribe will make his debut with the Wolverines on Friday against La Joya Juarez-Lincoln at La Joya ISD Stadium. Uribe takes the reins of a team that went 4-6 a year ago, but is loaded with enough talent to make Memorial a playoff contender.
Mike Gonzalez will begin his senior season as quarterback, and look to improve upon his district-leading passing yards (1,374) and completion percentage (51.9) from a year ago. The receiving corps is full of familiar faces, including Jerry Bocanegra and John Anthony Sanez, who combined for 1,209 receiving yards and six touchdowns.