JOSHUA McKINNEY, Special to the Herald
Pace High School had several chances to extend its night and fight for win No. 1, but they couldn’t seize the moment.
The Vikings had the final possession of regulation but failed to capitalize, losing their final non-district game of the season to the La Joya Palmview Lobos 21-14 on Friday in Brownsville.
The Vikings had the ball at the Palmview 29 with 1.6 seconds left of the clock. Pace senior quarterback Randy Aguilar took a snap out of the shotgun and rolled right to avoid the Lobos’ tremendous pass rush.
Palmview’s defense closed on Aguilar as he tried to avoid taking a sack while looking downfield and was chased out of bounds to end the game.
Second-half turnovers helped flip a balanced game to one where the Lobos were firmly in control during the fourth quarter despite a one-touchdown lead.
“Turnovers killed us flat out,” Pace head coach Bill Deen said. “We can’t throw three interceptions and expect to win.”
The Vikings started the fourth quarter tied at 14 in a promising with the ball on their 7-yard line. Palmview defensive back Andrew Puente picked off a pass and returned it to the Lobos’ 23.
The turnover set up a touchdown drive capped by a 3-yard score from Palmview running Joel Pina, which gave the Lobos (1-3) a 21-14 lead with 7:30 left in the game.
Pace (0-3) had three tries to tie the game after the pick and moved the ball to its 44-yard line the following drive but an interception thrown to senior linebacker Marcos Mora ended the drive.
A fumbled snap on Palmview’s next offensive possession gave Pace hope yet again, but Aguilar was picked off by Mora for a second time.
The Vikings’ defense stepped up and stopped the Lobos’ clock-chewing ground game, forcing a punt and getting the ball on their 25 with 1:44 to go.
Palmview had a chance to end the game on fourth-and-3 on their 42 with 7.7 seconds left on the clock. Pace drew a pass interference call on a deep pass to give their offense one last chance with less than two seconds on the game clock.
The offense had been efficient until the fourth quarter. Deen thought his offense was trying to force the big play, which compounded mistakes.
“I just think we started pressing too hard,” Deen said. “The kids wanted to win. Their effort was phenomenal. We can’t press. We just have to keep doing the things we’re doing. We have (run-pass options) and things like that, things that were working. We started panicking and thinking we had to move the ball fast when we had plenty of time on the clock.”
Aguilar finished the game with 250 yards of total offense and two touchdowns. Zapata had 13 catches for 135 yards and a score to lead Pace.
The win gives Palmview mometum heading into the start of District 30-6A play.
“It’s big. It’s big for the program right now,” Palmview head coach Margarito Requenez Jr. said. “Starting 0-3, it’s kind of hard to keep these kids motivated and hopefully with this win, we get that energy back that we’re known for. Hopefully we can build of this.”
Joel Pina helped get Palmview’s ground game going by gaining 129 of the team’s 233 rushing yards to go along with three touchdowns. Sophomore fullback Jose Avalos rushed for 65 yards on eight carries and senior running back Mark Salinas carried the ball five times for 39 yards.