By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
To open a new football season, the fans were treated to a thriller Friday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
After leading 7-0 for most of the game, the Port Isabel High School Tarpons had to rally to defeat Lopez 15-14 in overtime.
The Lobos tied the score 7-7 midway through the fourth quarter by blocking a Tarpons punt and returning it 31 yards to the end zone.
Lopez went first in OT and took the lead 14-7 before the Tarpons came back to score on their first possession of extra time to narrow the gap to 14-13. A successful two-point conversion run by P.I. tailback Omar Silva up the middle provided the winning margin.
“It was an exciting finish,” said Silva, who led all rushers with 181 yards on 18 carries and scored his team’s first TD. “It’s all the confidence we have in our offensive line (that made us decide to go for two).”
Silva’s 61-yard scamper with 6:55 showing in the second quarter gave the Tarpons their 7-0 advantage following Peter Cesenes’ extra point.
But Lobos found some life in the fourth quarter when Josue Lucio blocked a P.I. punt and Alec Angeles returned the loose ball 31 yards to make it 7-7 after Jose Echavarria’s extra point with 6:16 left in regulation.
The contest then went to OT and Lopez scored on a 25-yard pass from Alex Ramirez to Johnny Ibarra. Luis Carillo added the extra point to give the Lobos a 14-7 edge.
But P.I. came right back and scored when Carlos Orduna, who finished with 117 yards rushing, also on 18 carries, went off the left side and into the end zone from 2 yards out. It didn’t take the Tarpons long to decide to go for two. Silva burst across the goal line behind the blocking of his linemen for the game-winner.
“We thought about it a little bit, but then we said, ‘Nah (let’s not kick it), let’s go for two,” P.I. coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “I told the kids, ‘You give me 3 yards (on the conversion try) and we get the win.
“What I was really proud of was that after Lopez took the lead in overtime, our guys came right back to score and then we went on to win,” Stumbaugh added. “It shows we’ve got some character.”
At one point, it appeared the game might not go to OT at all as P.I. drove down the field with time winding down following Lopez’s TD on the blocked punt. The Tarpons marched all the way to the Lopez 5-yard line and had a second down before a bad pitch on the next play resulted in the Lobos recovering the loose ball at their 14 with just a few minutes remaining in regulation.
Lopez went 1-8 last season and returned eight starters on offense and three on defense as the Lobos moved from District 32-6A to 32-5A.
Port Isabel, playing in District 16-4A Division II, returns four starters on offense and six on defense from its 6-4 playoff team of one year ago.
Lopez travels to Edinburg High next Thursday while Port Isabel plays host to Tomball Christian on Friday.