By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
PORT ISABEL — The Port Isabel Tarpons inaugurated a new football season just as they have so many others in the past — with a victory.
This time it was a 31-19 triumph against the Grulla Gators on Friday at Tarpon Stadium.
The Tarpons, coming off a 7-4 playoff season, trailed 6-0 and 13-12 before going ahead for good, 18-13, during the final seconds of the first half.
Port Isabel led 25-13 after three quarters, and the teams traded scores during the final period to account for the Tarpons’ 12-point season-opening victory.
“It feels good to win this one,” Tarpons coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “It was a little sloppy, but we’ll take it. We had some turnovers in the first half that we felt probably cost us a couple scores. Our kids fought through our mistakes and got the win. I’m proud of them. They fought hard.
“We had a nine-minute scoring drive in the second half (that allowed us to take a 25-13 lead), and I thought that was the tale of the tape (for us to earn the victory) right there,” Stumbaugh added. “We played hard against a good team. (Grulla) Coach (Abel) Gonzalez does a good job over there.”
Grulla, coming off a 1-9 playoff season, got on the scoreboard first when Miguel Flores returned a punt 54 yards to the end zone with 6:45 showing in the first quarter. The extra point was blocked, leaving the score 6-0.
Port Isabel responded with its first TD on the third play of the second quarter as Ivan Gonzalez went in from 4 yards out. The extra point sailed just barely wide, so the game was tied at 6.
The Tarpons went ahead 12-6 when Trey Mock intercepted a pass by Grulla quarterback Fabian Anzaldua and returned it 33 yards to the end zone with 8:11 to go in the second period. A rush for the two-point conversion failed.
Grulla went ahead again, 13-12, when Anzaldua connected with Leo Martinez down the right sideline on a 61-yard scoring pass play. The two later hooked up for a 26-yard scoring pass with 3:25 left in the fourth period.
Javier Ochoa provided the extra-point kick that lifted Grulla into the 13-12 lead with 6:20 to go in the first half.
But the Tarpons rallied again.
Mock, lined up at tight end on the right side, took a handoff, came left and cut up the middle to score from 5 yards out with 17 seconds remaining in the half to put the Tarpons in the lead 18-13, and Port Isabel was on its way to another season-opening triumph.
The Tarpons took the second-half kickoff and marched 66 yards in 15 plays to basically put the game out of reach, 25-13, when Alex De Los Santos bulled his way across the goal line from 2 yards out with 2:57 showing during the third quarter.
Anthony de la Garza added a 33-yard scoring run for the Tarpons with 5:13 remaining to make it 31-13.
The Tarpons opened with a 29-9 win over Grulla last season in Rio Grande City.
Port Isabel will try to improve to 2-0 next Friday on the road against the Rio Grande City Rattlers. Grulla next plays host to Raymondville on Thursday at RGC.