BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
Mission Veterans’ 48-7 takedown of Rio Grande City last week would ordinarily reek of an unstoppable aerial attack with senior quarterback Landry Gilpin and a defensive shutdown of Rio Grande City’s offense. Neither were true, as Gilpin threw only one touchdown pass, and the Rattlers racked up 330 yards on the Patriots defense.
The Mission Veterans (3-1, 3-0) offense was without starting receivers Leo Cantu and Mikey Garcia, and the defense had defensive lineman Jose Ortiz and outside linebacker Jazz Vallejo missing from the lineup. Those don’t even take into account linebackers Eriberto Villarreal and J.J. Gallegos, who were hurt in the first half and did not return.
Additionally, starting safety Elias Delgado was held out as a precaution after dislocating a knee during the third quarter of the Patriots’ Week 3 home game vs. Brownsville Veterans.
“Jazz (Vallejo) and Leo (Cantu) were back at practice and in pads, but we held back everyone else,” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said Monday. “They’re all getting treatment three times a day — morning, noon and afternoon. Unfortunately, we had (senior wide receiver) Juan Resendez break his forearm and dislocate his elbow against Rio. He’ll get surgery on Wednesday and be out for the year. Other than that, we don’t have any more season-ending injuries. We feel pretty good about where we’re at right now.”
Among the reserves who stepped in for Garcia at wide receiver was junior Eddie Vasquez, whose only catch against Rio Grande City resulted in Landry Gilpin’s only touchdown pass.
“One of the things that we’re proud of is our program numbers,” David Gilpin said. “We’ve been over 200 players total in the last three years. When you have injuries, we have guys who will get an opportunity. We had seven starters out of the game last week. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, the next guy stepped up and filled their role, as they were expected to.”
Gilpin suggested he could rest some of his injured players heading into this week’s game against Brownsville Porter (1-3, 0-3) because the Patriots have a bye in Week 6. Mission Veterans starts the second half of the regular season on Oct. 12 at Donna High (3-1, 2-1).
“You can see that they (Brownsville Porter) are starting to believe in themselves, and that’s a really neat thing,” Gilpin said. “We’ve spent 10 years to build our program, and it’s starting to happen for them. They’ve got some young guys, but we’re not going to take them lightly.”