BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
DONNA — On Friday night, the Mission High Eagles and Mission Veterans Patriots brought the city of Mission together, just like the previous 15 matchups have. The small twist: Bennie LaPrade Stadium in Donna played host to the city rivalry instead of Mission’s Tom Landry Stadium, which is still going through a renovation project.
Mission High threw Mission Veterans off its offensive game early, but the Patriots got it together in the second half to defeat the Eagles 18-14.
The Patriots were forced to punt on their first two possessions of the opening quarter.
“They (Mission High) were running more of a contain defense, so they were forcing us to pass the ball,” Mission Veterans junior quarterback Landry Gilpin said. “They dropped back in coverage a lot with the deep routes we ran.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Eagles sophomore quarterback Damian Gomez led Mission High on two touchdown drives, running one in from a yard out and finding junior wideout Sebastian Gonzalez for another score to build a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
Gomez made his first start of the season on Friday night.
“Damian did a good job for us,” Mission High coach Koy Detmer said. “He didn’t have the luxury of having a Game 1 to get his legs underneath him, but he battled through it. I was proud of his performance tonight.”
As the Eagles continued to clamp down on the passing game, Gilpin and the Patriots started to make their move on the ground. Gilpin ran for his second touchdown of the season from 4 yards out to get Mission Veterans on the board. A blocked extra point made it a 14-6 Mission High lead heading into the locker room.
The Patriots defense flexed its muscles in the second half. Mission Veterans held the Mission High offense scoreless in the final 24 minutes of game action.
“Give them credit: they hit a couple of touchdowns on us, but that’s a power run football team,” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said. “Did you see the size of their offensive line? Did you see the size of our kids? Our defensive line and linebackers have really committed to stopping the run and playing physical, hard-nosed football.
“There’s this general thought about us that we’re this ‘finesse’ football team, because we like to spread it out and throw the ball. That’s the farthest thing from the truth.”
Down 14-12 in the third, the Mission Veterans offense struck a balance. Landry Gilpin found wide receiver Buda Gonzalez on two throws for 32 yards and managed to scramble for more yardage on the ground. Gilpin ended the 10-play, 69-yard drive with a second rushing TD from 1 yard out to put the Patriots ahead to stay.
“We decided that if the pass wasn’t there, then we’d try and scramble a bit,” Landry Gilpin said. “The offense picked it up in the second half. Everybody was doing everything they needed to.”