By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial had only a few opportunities on offense, but Abel Martinez made it count against Porter.
The junior running back scored three touchdowns — he caught a touchdown pass and ran for two others — and helped the Chargers defeat the Cowboys 23-9 in the District 32-5A game on Thursday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
“I couldn’t do it without our blocking,” Martinez said. “We played hard to the end, from whistle to whistle, and we never gave up on each other.”
Martinez finished with 118 yards on the ground and caught one pass for 54 yards to lead the way for the Brownsville Veterans (6-2, 4-1) and keep Porter (0-8, 0-5) winless on the season.
“Abel got loose as a receiver, as a running back and made some big plays,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “It may have been they were worried about Gustavo (Vasquez) a little bit, but Abel had to come through and do his part and he did.”
Vasquez completed 4 of 5 passes for 78 yards and a touchdown and ran for 95 yards for Brownsville Veterans.
The Chargers’ defense did the rest, holding the Cowboys’ offense to 263 yards and scored on a defensive conversion.
Johnathan Gonzalez finished with 163 yards and a touchdown on the ground for Porter, but it wouldn’t be enough in a tight game throughout.
The Chargers broke the scoreless tie with 4:27 left in the opening quarter. Quarterback Gustavo Vasquez found an open Martinez for a 54-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown and gave Brownsville Veterans a 7-0 lead.
Porter drove inside the Chargers 20-yard line, but couldn’t put it in the end zone and settled for a 33-yard field goal by Angel Silva with 8:15 left in the second quarter.
Brownsville Veterans would add to its advantage later in the quarter after Martinez found pay dirt after a 2-yard run to give the Chargers a 14-3 lead that they would take into the break.
After a scoreless third quarter, Gonzalez scored on a 3-yard run to cut he deficit for Porter, but the Chargers forced a fumble on the 2-point conversion and Rey Salazar scored the defensive conversion to give the Chargers a 16-9 lead.
Porter had another chance when Brownsville Veterans fumbled on its next drive, but the Chargers’ defense held the Cowboys and they turned it over on downs.
“We got caught with no timeouts and the clock running down on us in the fourth quarter and we pressed a little too much,” Porter coach Tom Campos said. “I think if we had timeouts in our pocket, we could have settled everything down and taken more control.”
Martinez ran for a 33-yard touchdown with 2:58 to play on the next drive to seal the game and the victory for Brownsville Veterans.
Despite the loss, Campos was happy with the team’s effort, especially the defense that held the Chargers below their average in yards and points. The Cowboys are starting to play better as the season has gone on.
“It was a whole effort, we picked it up on offense, defense and special teams. We executed well,” Campos said. “Our motto is win from within. We’ve had some branches break and the ground starting to shake a little bit, but our roots are deep and we keep getting tighter as a family and I think that showed (Thursday).”
With the win, Brownsville Veterans keeps itself near the top of the standings with Mercedes and Lopez set to face off tonight in an important game with plenty of postseason implications in District 32-5A.
“We don’t want to just make the playoffs, we want to stay around for a while,” Cantu said. “Our kids come to practice every day and they’re committed. They study video and they’re prepared. That’s all, it’s not complicated, they’re all in.”
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.