FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
LA FERIA — La Feria, Brownsville St. Joseph and Edinburg High kicked off the 2017 preseason with a tri-scrimmage Friday night at Lions Stadium.
The format for the game was 20 plays for each offense (La Feria vs. St. Joe defense, Edinburg vs. La Feria defense and St. Joe vs. Edinburg defense), followed by 15 plays for the each team’s second string offense, before going live for 15 minutes each (Edinburg vs. St. Joseph, La Feria vs. Edinburg High, La Feria vs. St. Joseph).
NOTES FROM THE GAME: The Lions offense showed glimpses of what it could be under sophomore quarterback Dorian Hernandez, who sat in the pocket and made some impressive throws. However, he also showed his inexperience at times. Most notably in the live portion of the game after the Lions marched downfield and were inside the red zone when Hernandez threw an interception in the end zone.
Nevertheless, La Feria head coach Oscar Salinas saw both positives and negatives.
“I liked the way we played hard and our quickness,” he said. “But where we lacked was in our assignments. I liked the effort tonight and we’ve worked real hard on our conditioning these past two weeks. We don’t have the depth that we had last year so we have to play a little more.
“Dorian looked pretty good at times and I think he needs to get his timing down with the receivers. He had a good game, but he is young kid and I appreciated the way he led the team. He missed a couple of long ones, but if he hits that we would have done better. Overall I liked his effort today.”
Defensively, La Feria looked sharp against both Edinburg and St. Joseph’s hurry-up offense. Look for the Lions strong defense to carry the team for a while.
For St. Joseph, the star of the show was undoubtedly quarterback Kai Money, who dazzled the crowd with his precision passing and his breakout speed. Money finished the game throwing three touchdown passes as the Bloodhounds’ offense looked as potent as it’s been in recent years.
“I liked the way we started but I didn’t like the way we finished,” said St. Joseph head coach Tino Villarreal. “Like everyone there are things we have to work on. I think we are very comfortable when our coaches are on the field, but when our boys are in a position to think for themselves we need some work. But I think we can get there; even when things broke down I liked our effort
“We’re a small school with 350 kids and to play a 6A team like Edinburg and a 4A team like La Feria, two great teams that we respect immensely in Coach Salinas and Coach JJ Leija (Edinburg High) because they do just amazing things with their programs, and just to share the field with them was an honor.”