By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Special to the Herald
Inexperience on both sides of the ball made it difficult for Porter to keep pace with a quick-draw offense.
The Porter Cowboys lost to the McAllen Rowe Warriors 42-9 on Friday at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
Porter (0-3) strung together several long drives during the game but were undone by penalties and other mistakes expected from a team that lost a horde senior talent from last year’s playoff team.
“Our intensity’s picking up (but) it’s the same things that held us back the last two weeks,” Porter head coach Tom Campos said. “We’re picking up on one side of the ball and dropping on the other. Have a good quarter then have a bad quarter.
“When we get things together we’re a good team, a real good football team. We just have to put it all together for four quarters. We have yet to do that.”
The Warriors’ offense reeled off 35 points on its first five drives of the game, matching its up-tempo pace with explosive plays.
Rowe wasted no time getting on board during the game’s opening drive by scoring on a 59-yard touchdown run by junior wide receiver Hector Ramirez just two plays in to go up 7-0.
Porter’s ground-and-pound running game moved the offense into Rowe territory on the next drive but failed to move any farther than Rowe’s 49-yard line before punting.
Rowe junior quarterback Jesus Sanchez connected with junior receiver Adrian Bernal on a 51-yard pass during the next drive to get the Warriors into the redzone. The duo paired up two plays later to score on a 13-yard throw to make it 14-0 for Rowe.
A fumble on Porter’s next drive gave the Warriors the ball in Cowboys territory and Sanchez’s second touchdown throw of the night, this time to senior receiver Mark Hernandez for 19 yards, made it a 21-0 game with less than four minutes left in the first quarter.
“The key is our quarterback and our offensive line gelling (together), making sure that we are set and that we’re running the plays that are called effectively against the defense that we’ve seen,” Rowe head coach Robert Flores said. “We’re working together and getting up to the line quickly, hopefully getting them caught off guard a little bit helps us in our tempo of what we’re trying to run.”
Porter put its first points on the board during the second quarter on a drive that took the Cowboys deep into Rowe territory
A 15-yard personal foul took an 11-yard carry from Ulises Guzman from the 1-yard line to the 16. Porter had a false start penalty called on a wide receiver two plays later that pushed the drive back out of the red zone.
The Cowboys ended the drive with a 38-yard field goal by senior Angel Silva for their first points of the game.
“The inexperience kicked in,” Campos said. “We have some outstanding wideouts, hellacious athletes, but they’ve been playing basketball the last three years … they’re still learning where to line up and the cadences. Those 5-yard penalties hurt us, especially with a team like we have and the running game that we have. Those five yards are a big deal. If we clean up those things, we’ll be great.”
Porter’s other score came on a 1-yard touchdown plunge by senior running back Johnathan Gonzalez on the team’s final offensive drive of the game.
Gonzalez led Porter with 30 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown. Ramiro Martinez ran for 36 yards and sophomore quarterback Benjamin Ekersley threw for 25 yards.
Sanchez had 188 total yards of offense and two touchdown passes for the Warriors. Raudel Garcia ran for 47 yards and two scores on nine carries, and Bernal led Rowe’s receiving corps with four receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown. Senior running back Gustavo Salazar also had a touchdown run.