By Jesus Sanchez | The Brownsville Herald
The Bloodhounds and the Raymondville Bearkats will renew their rivalry in clash of styles at 7:30 p.m. Friday during St. Joseph Academy’s home opener at Canales Field in Brownsville.
“We’re trying to piece together 48 minutes of football,” St. Joseph head coach Tino Villarreal said. “I think that for having a young team, we’ve played some good opponents and the difference in those games is obviously the turnovers. We just have to take care of the football.”
St. Joseph (1-2) is coming off a 59-33 loss against Rio Hondo in Week 3, in which the Bloodhounds turned the ball over multiple times.
Villarreal said one of main focuses in practice this week was playing smarter and taking care of the football.
“That’s really been our deal all week long,” he said. “I think, if you look back, Rio Hondo has always been a real stingy defense and a very good football team and we have a lot of respect for them and turning over the ball six times isn’t going to help us out.
“We thought we hung in tough for three quarters. Raymondville is going to be just as good, if not better. If we want to be in the game for longer than three quarters, we’re going to have to keep possession and not turnover the football.”
The Bloodhounds will aim to get wide receiver Pablo Zolezzi involved against the Bearkats.
Last season, Zolezzi, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound starter, was a key player in the Bloodhounds’ 2017 campaign.
“(Zolezzi is a) pretty big guy and we’re just trying to figure out ways to get him the football,” the St. Joseph coach said. “He caught for 900 yards for us last year and so we’re really excited to see him get out there.”
Zolezzi will be backed up by the Bloodhounds’ offensive linemen, which will see guard Gabriel Caram make his return to the St. Joseph side for the first time this season.
The key to overcoming the Bearkats’ attack, however, will be each Bloodhound doing their job, Villarreal said.
“We have an eager group of seniors and, obviously, they expect to win every game and I think one of the most important mindsets to have is just for everyone individually to do their job and not try to do someone else’s job,” he said. “I think if everyone takes care of their own job, we’re going to be just fine.”
The Bearkats (2-1) have also been preparing for their match against St. Joseph.
After dropping its season opener to La Feria in a 17-7 loss, Raymondville has won its last two matchups, including a 49-0 shutout against Lyford last week.
Head coach Frank Cantu said he likes the improvement he’s seen from the Bearkats during the last couple of weeks.
“We feel that we’re practicing well and we feel that we’re seeing improvements week in and week out,” Cantu said. “We’ve had some really tough matchups with St. Joe. It’s been tough games. We know they’re tough.
“They’re well coached. Coach Tino Villarreal does a great job with those guys. He always has them ready. We have to be ready. We have to be at the top of our game so that we can make sure we get in there; we make sure we execute and play the best football that we can.”
For the Bearkats, having ball control will be a factor in establishing their running game early and one of the keys to victory.
“We have to be stingy on defense,” Cantu said. “We want to try and get as many three-and-outs as we can and just keep them away from the ball and for us, to hang on to the ball as much as possible (as well as) have some long drives.
“We always want to win the turnover battle. We like to get some turnovers; we like to make them count. Those are some of the things that we look for week in and week out.”
The Raymondville coach said he knows the team will be in a fight against the Bloodhounds, but the Bearkats are looking forward to it.
“We want to go in there and we want to execute,” Cantu said. “We want to play well and we want to try and come out of there with a victory. We know it’s always been a tough game, so we’re anticipating a good ball game there on Friday night.”