By MARK MOLINA | The Brownsville Herald
With just a win separating the Los Fresnos Falcons and the postseason, the Rivera Raiders proved to be a big hurdle in their effort to play spoiler.
Despite a fiery Rivera pass rush plaguing him all day, Los Fresnos senior quarterback Charles Chapa accounted for a pair of touchdowns in the final four minutes of play to secure a 28-14 District 32-6A win Saturday afternoon at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
Chapa, who was sacked five times and fumbled the ball away three times, threw a 70-yard touchdown to Nicholas Valencia to break a 14-14 tie with 3:33 to play and then ran for a 22-yard score to ice the game a minute later.
“I have to take my hat off to the defense, they played a heck of a game,” Chapa said. “It took us a while to get going, but in the fourth quarter we started clicking and made some plays happen. My team and coaches just kept telling me to shake it off and I got to thank them for that.”
The Falcons improved to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in district play to secure the final District 32-6A playoff spot, while Rivera fell to 1-8 (0-6 32-6A).
The Falcon miscues didn’t hurt much as their defense came up with three takeaways of its own and held Rivera to just one scoring possession, which Los Fresnos head coach Patrick Brown said was a tough task.
“You have to give all the credit to Rivera. Those kids are having a losing season and I have so much respect for that coaching staff,” Brown said. “Everybody in those stands saw a bunch of kids with nothing to lose and they just battled their tails off and I was so impressed.”
Rivera’s offense drove into Los Fresnos territory twice in the fourth quarter, but like most of the afternoon, couldn’t capitalize on those opportunities.
“We just got tired, but I give a lot of credit to our guys, we kept on saying that we’re going to keep on playing,” Rivera head coach Tom Chavez said. “We just ran out of gas a little bit. We made mistakes and that also hurt us a little bit. We had our chances early and we didn’t make some plays like we should have and that happens in football.
“Everybody was probably thinking that Los Fresnos was going to come down hard on us, but these guys rose to the occasion.”
With both offenses struggling to move the ball early in the first half, the Rivera defensive brought the heat in the trenches.
On the first play of the second quarter, Rivera linebacker sacked Los Fresnos’ Charles Chapa, forcing a fumble that quickly rolled into the Falcon end zone where Alfredo Alaniz would fall on it for a Raider touchdown.
Rivera’s defense dropped Chapa four times and forced the senior quarterback into two fumbles in the first half, where the Falcons recorded just 55 yards of total offense in, including minus 24 on the ground.
“We wanted to win the battle and mix it up there up front and try to make the play,” Chavez said. “They did a good job.”
Los Fresnos’ defense did keep the Rivera offense off the board in the half and held them to 99 yards of offense.
The Falcon secondary gave the Falcons life, forcing Raider quarterback Nicholas Blanco into a pair of interceptions late in the second quarter.
The first was to JJ Sanchez and the second to Isaiah Muniz, which Chapa took advantage of on the ensuing possession when he found Nicholas Valencia for a 44-yard catch-and-run score with 54 seconds to play in the half, tying the game at 7.
Blanco had a rough day through the air, going 7 of 19 for 86 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions.
Los Fresnos caught a break in the third quarter after a penalty prior to a fourth-down play gave them a new set of downs on the Rivera 15, setting up a Chapa for an 8-yard touchdown run to give the Falcons a 14-7 lead in the mid third.
Rivera was penalized 10 times for 73 yards on the day.
Los Fresnos was also penalized six times for 50 yards, one of which extended a Rivera drive late in the third, setting it up at the Falcon 20.
Blanco completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Oscar Lozoya to tie the game two plays later to tie the game at 14 with 2:40 to play in the third.
It would stay that way until the late fourth when the Falcons scored twice to go ahead for good.
Chapa finished with 183 yards and two touchdowns on 12 of 22 passing. He also ran for 26 yards and two more scores.
Valencia caught five passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns.