McALLEN — A touchdown on the final play of the first half fueled McAllen Rowe to a blowout 40-14 win over Brownsville Porter on Thursday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The receiving TD as time expired was one of Raudel Garcia’s three on the night. Receiver Noe Ramirez joined Garcia with three TDs of his own as McAllen Rowe (2-1) rolled past Porter (0-3).
Jonas Ortiz started at quarterback following a Week 2 injury to Jesus Sanchez. Ortiz threw an interception early but settled down to lead the offense to a dominant performance.
“Our senior leadership, Adrian Bernal and Raudel Garcia, just kind of making sure our offense was running smoothly,” Rowe coach Bobby Flores told MISD following the game. “Our quarterback Jonas did a good job controlling the tempo of the game.
“We just have to make sure we come out of the gates early and finish.”
GRULLA 38, PSJA SOUTHWEST 6: At Pharr, the Gators (2-1) were on the road for their first Thursday game of the season, but that was no problem as Grulla rolled against PSJA Southwest (0-3).
The Gators scored on their first three drives and carried the lead throughout.
“This felt great,” Grulla coach Abel Gonzalez III said. “Last week, we had a bad week. Raymondville played well. Give them a lot of credit, but we didn’t play Gator football. So tonight was a huge bounce-back win for us as a team. I thought we played pretty good on both sides of the ball. … Our kids responded. We controlled the game physically. And I am proud of my kids.”
Grulla, a Class 4A team, was not overwhelmed playing Southwest, a 6A school.
The deadly combo of senior wide receiver Miguel Flores and quarterback Dillen Salinas combined for the first three Gators touchdowns. Flores caught two touchdowns and Salinas ran for one.
“We kind of set the tone for the game,” Gonzalez said. “Those two put us up 21-0 before halftime.”
PSJA Southwest coach Michael Evans said his team needs to show more consistency than it did on Thursday.
“We have to get more disciplined,” Evans said. “Special teams-wise, I don’t think we played our best game. Defensively, we have to play a little faster and tackle better. We are going to go work on that.”
Grulla will use the long week to its advantage, as the Gators coaching staff will get to see Lyford, their Week 4 opponent, take on Raymondville at 7:30 tonight in Lyford.
“We have a little bit more time to get ready for them,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a grueling non-district schedule for us, but we are just taking it one game at a time. Thank God we stayed healthy tonight, and now we can key in on Lyford moving forward.”
EDINBURG HIGH 28, LA JOYA PALMVIEW 9: At Edinburg, Hearlin Benavides scored two quick rushing TDs to help the Bobcats jump ahead and stay there. Edinburg High improved to 1-2, while Palmview fell to 1-2.
DISTRICT 31-5A
MISSION VETERANS 42, LAREDO MARTIN 24: At La Joya, quarterback Landry Gilpin threw two of his four touchdown passes to senior wide receiver Buda Gonzalez in the Patriots’ win over the Tigers.
Gilpin and running back Danny Cantu also ran for a touchdown each to push Mission Veterans to its second 3-0 start to the season since 2010.