By ROY HESS
The Brownsville Herald
PROGRESO — The question was posed to St. Joseph Academy coach Tino Villarreal after the Bloodhounds’ decisive football scrimmage victory at Progreso on Thursday night.
Are the Bloodhounds, ranked 10th in the state in TAPPS Class 6A, ready for their season opener at Canales Field next Friday against highly regarded Grulla, considered one of the top Class 4A teams in South Texas?
“We have a high-quality team and we didn’t perform quite up to my expectations (against Progreso),” Villarreal said. “But make no mistake, we’ll have our team ready to play Grulla.
“That’s our job (as coaches),” he added. “We’ll make sure we’re at full throttle for our season opener. Grulla is a phenomenal team and we’ll be ready. We’re excited to have it as a home game.”
The Bloodhounds might not have risen quite to their coach’s expectations Thursday, but they still looked pretty good against the Red Ants, who are regrouping this season under first-year coach Frank Martinez.
SJA scored once during the controlled portion of the scrimmage and shut out the Red Ants. Then, during two quarters of game conditions, the Bloodhounds won 28-0.
“We were fortunate to get together with Progreso and (agree to) move this scrimmage up to Thursday (from Friday),” Villarreal said. “This was a precautionary move to Thursday (because of Hurricane Harvey).”
SJA quarterback Kai Money, now a senior, did some typical Kai Money things in highlighting the offensive side of the scrimmage. He threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for another score.
Money sprinted out to his right and flipped a 1-yard touchdown toss to Keaton Cackley for the only score in the controlled portion of the scrimmage.
In game conditions, Money completed a 9-yard scoring strike to Andres Martinez on fourth-and-four to make it 7-0 following Money’s extra point with 10:26 showing in the opening period.
It became 14-0 when SJA running back Anthony Cantu went off right guard and into the end zone from 5 yards out at the 2:36 mark of the initial quarter. Money kept the ball and raced 10 yards before crossing the goal line to boost the lead to 21-0 with 10:26 to play.
The Bloodhounds’ final TD was set up by SJA’s Antonio del Pozo, who intercepted a Progreso pass and returned it to the Red Ants’ 10-yard line.
Three plays later, SJA reserve running back Sebastian Cuellar went in from 4 yards out with 2:13 remaining to make it 28-0.
“Obviously, I liked the composure of our team tonight,” Villarreal said. “The Progreso players had their ears pinned back and came after Kai, and he still kept his composure. Kai was Kai. He made good reads and good decisions with the ball. After our offensive line kind of got its bearings a little bit, those guys started playing well. We were finishing blocks and getting downfield (for additional blocks).
“The defense did a great job, especially the ‘D-Line,’ with some tackles for losses,” the coach added. “We were gang-tackling. We told our defense to play with a ‘Fourth-and-One Mentality,’ and they did. We’re going to need our defense to step up big so we can stay in games this year.
“There were a lot of standout moments tonight. Even though my expectations were maybe a little higher, we still had a million bright spots.”
Villarreal said the Bloodhounds held their own when they had their first action Aug. 18 in a tri-scrimmage against Edinburg High and La Feria.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess