By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
The Porter Cowboys are 1-0 and believing even better things are ahead for them this football season.
Revived by last week’s season-opening 14-3 victory at Port Isabel that snapped a 22-game losing streak, the Cowboys are pumped up for their second game, which is a District 16-5A Division I opener against the Pace Vikings at 7 p.m. Thursday at Sams Memorial Stadium.
By the way, the Vikings are pretty fired up as well as they continue their crosstown rivalry against the Cowboys.
Pace is coming off a 20-17 overtime defeat at Sharyland High in Mission last Friday in its season opener.
This is a chance for one of the two ballclubs to begin conference action with a victory, and both teams want to take advantage of the opportunity.
“It feels great (to be 1-0),” Porter coach Carlos Uresti said. “It’s not the ‘end all, be all’ (win) for us, though. There are greater goals we want to accomplish this season. It helps motivate us as we continue with our season, and it allows us to have respect for our opponents, yet have confidence in our team, too.”
Pace has won its last two district encounters with the Cowboys. The Vikings triumphed 56-34 in 2017 and 32-14 in 2016. The Cowboys’ most recent victory in the series was a 28-21 win in 2015.
The Vikings know they have to contain the Cowboys’ rushing attack. Porter quarterback Kevin Garcia and running back Ulises Guzman ran for 140 and 104 yards, respectively, and one touchdown each in last week’s win at Port Isabel.
“Porter does a heck of a job running the ball,” said Pace coach Danny Pardo, who will be going against his alma mater when the Vikings face Porter. “We’ll have our hands full. We have a lot of respect for them.”
While Garcia, now a sophomore, was the starter at QB for the Cowboys last season as a freshman, the Vikings have tabbed sophomore Jose Banda as QB to replace the graduated Randy Aguilar, a talented passer. Banda completed nine of 23 passing attempts last week for 111 yards with one TD and no interceptions.
Brandon Zapata led the Pace rushing attack last week with 56 yards on 16 carries and one TD.
“We didn’t do too badly (in our season opener),” Pardo said. “Our offense made some costly mistakes at the wrong time and that hurt us. It caused our defense to be on the field too much.
“We kept playing hard, though,” Pardo added. “Overall, the effort by our guys was great.”
Over at Porter, Uresti is instilling confidence in his players. It helps that the Cowboys have a win to build upon.
“We’re telling the players, ‘If you want to make a change, you’ve got to create change,’” the Porter coach said. “Our players are working hard to do that.”
Asked about his impressions of Pace, Uresti replied, “They have a very strong defense. We’re telling our players that the Pace players put on their cleats just like we do.”
Porter will be the home team for Thursday’s game.
District 16-5A Division I action continues for both teams next week with Donna High vs. Pace at Sams on Sept. 13 and Porter at La Joya Palmview on Sept. 14.