By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
It took just a few moments into the game for Lopez to set the tone against Donna North.
After the Lobos’ defense forced a fumble on the Chiefs’ first play, it took just 16 seconds for senior running back Jose Echavarria to capitalize after he scored on a 30-yard run. Echavarria added another touchdown on his next carry to set the tone as Lopez remained unbeaten with a 54-10 victory over Donna North in a District 32-5A game Thursday at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Echavarria racked up 168 yards on 12 carries and the two touchdowns and Alex Ramirez threw for 217 yards and four touchdowns as the offense found its rhythm early and continued to light up the scoreboard as Lopez improved to 5-0, 2-0.
“It all starts with a good drive, once we get the ball we know we have to execute,” Echavarria said. “It’s all thanks to the O-line … all the credit to them.”
The Lobos’ defense continued its dominance as it forced three turnovers, got a safety and held the Chiefs (0-5, 0-2) to 148 yards of offense.
Lopez wasted no time getting on the board. After the Chiefs’ fumble, Echavarria needed one play to score — a 30-yard run for a score — to take a 7-0 lead with 11:44 left in the opening quarter.
Donna North drove to the Lopez 22-yard line on its next drive, but settled for a 39-yard field goal by Christopher Flores to cut its deficit to four with 6:40 left in the first.
On the Lobos’ next drive, Echavarria took a handoff 37 yards for another score to extend the lead to 14-3 with 5:10 left in the first.
“We prefer to start like that, but we have experience not starting that way too,” Lopez coach Jason Starkey said. “I think we took the next step to playing cleaner football, that’s all. We have respect for our opponent and we work our tail off and that’s how we respect them. Really, we’re 1-0 (this week) and in 24 hours we’ll be 0-0 (again).”
Another Donna North fumble gave Lopez the ball back and it took advantage. The Lobos capped off a drive with a 2-yard run by junior running back Christian Gamez for another score to take a 21-3 edge with 1:39 left in the first.
“We started off the game and gave them short fields,” Donna North coach Mathew Rokovich said. “They have an explosive enough offense and when you give them something like that, they’re going to capitalize on that … they’re a good football team.”
Lopez then got it done through the air in the second quarter as senior quarterback Alex Ramirez found senior receiver Leo Alaniz on a 25-yard touchdown pass and later hit senior running back JD Diaz on a 31-yard catch and run for another score and pushed the advantage to 35-3 at the break.
In the second half, it was more of the same for Lopez. The Lobos got a two more touchdown passes from Ramirez, one to Cesar Trevino from 1-yard out and a 67-yard screen pass for a score by Diaz. Baltazar Cerda added a 36-yard field goal and Lopez added a safety on a ball that Donna North snapped out the back of the end zone on a punt attempt.
The Chiefs scored their lone touchdown on a 2-yard run by Tony Gomez with five minutes left in the game. Otherwise, Donna North struggled to move the ball with consistency against the Lopez defense.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Rokovich said. “We have to get back to work and correct our mistakes. There’s always right and wrong … we have to look at the good things we did and get better at those and fix those things that we need to fix.”
Lopez piled up 502 yards of offense on the night and took a 47-3 lead into the fourth quarter. But Starkey wasn’t exactly enthusiastic by the how the team played with a big lead.
“I’m happy with how we started, but I’m not happy with the way we finished to be completely honest,” he said. “We had kids mentally out of the game and it’s a four quarter game … young guys and veterans weren’t in the game.
“I’m happy we won, but we haven’t played our best ball yet.”
The Lobos coach knows that his team can play better and will need to with some tough district games coming up.
“There are a lot of things we have to get better at,” Starkey said. “I’m blessed to have a great coaching staff and kids that come to work and focus on those things. That’s the reason we’re experiencing success because they haven’t forgotten where they’re from and what it took to get here.
“Greatness is an all the time thing, not a some of the time thing … it’s everything they put their name on. They have to take pride and do it the right way and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
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.