By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
It took 21 points for the Rivera High School football team to put to rest 642 days of bad memories.
The Raiders raced out to a two-score lead, and held on to defeat the Porter Cowboys 21-14 in both teams’ season opener Thursday night at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
The victory was Rivera’s first triumph since Nov. 21, 2014, when the Raiders topped McAllen High in a Class 6A second-round playoff game.
With the team looking to get back on track following last year’s 0-10 performance, Rivera took to the ground Thursday and ran its way to victory.
The Raiders rushed for 280 yards and a pair of touchdowns, including a game-high 107 yards and a score from Jesus Muniz. The junior running back provided some heroics for Rivera in the second half, scoring an insurance touchdown to give the Raiders a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
The Rivera played a deciding role as well, coming up with a two critical fourth-quarter stops, one of which included an interception by junior David Pena on the Cowboys’ final possession.
“It was a good win, but it was a hard win; it was a tough one,” Rivera coach Tom Chavez said. “(Our defense) made some stops and made some big plays when we needed to make big plays.”
Rivera’s offense totaled 404 yards, but it was the rushing attack that was the difference as the Raiders controlled the ball and the clock.
“We’ve been working on our run game,” Chavez added. “We have some big boys up there, they’re young, but they’re going to get better.”
Rivera got on the board first late in the first quarter. Junior quarterback Nicholas Blanco hit Oscar Lozoya on a 63-yard catch and run for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead at the 4:10 mark.
Rivera wasted no time adding to its lead in the second quarter, as senior tailback Jaden Endsley burst past the Porter defense for a 56-yard touchdown and a 14-0 advantage just 54 seconds into the second quarter.
Endsley finished with 79 yards on five carries.
Porter’s offense struggled to do much in the first half until finally getting on the board with a 6-yard scoring run from junior quarterback Ramiro Martinez late in the second quarter.
“I hate to say that, but we came out flat,” Porter coach Tom Campos said. “For as big as we are, we didn’t move the line of scrimmage like we were supposed to. Our backs started getting tentative because the line wasn’t getting that push.”
Things worsened for Porter just four minutes into the second half when Muniz padded the lead with his 3-yard touchdown scamper.
Porter responded when Martinez found a seam to the end zone for the second time with a 16-yard run to the outside to keep the Cowboys close.
From there, however, the Raider defense stiffened and blanked the Cowboys over the final 12 minutes of play to seal the win.
Martinez finished with 86 yards and a pair of scores and Johnathan Gonzalez had 90 yards on 19 carries for the Cowboys. Porter finished with 234 yards on the ground, but didn’t convert key opportunities to change momentum.
“We know we’re going to drain the clock, but we have to move the ball and end the drives with points,” Campos said. “We just didn’t execute. Nothing against them, they’re going to be a lot better than they have been the last two years.”
For Rivera, the win showed the team its headed in the right direction.
“It’s just such a good win. We needed that, a good win heals a lot,” Chavez said. “We just needed to get that out of our system and I think that’s going to help. A win always helps.”
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.