NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
Mission High narrowly escaped with a win over La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, but in the process lost a big part of the Eagles unit.
Junior quarterback Damian Gomez had to be taken out of the game and to the hospital after taking a hit from Juarez-Lincoln defensive lineman Xavier Monreal. The injury turned out to be a broken clavicle, which puts him out for the foreseeable future.
Freshman Jeremy Duran, who has seen action in all of the Eagles games this year, will take the reigns.
“Obviously you’re always best when you’re fully loaded and you don’t have any injuries,” Mission coach Koy Detmer said. “Jeremy (Duran) has been in some of those earlier games in similar type positions and done a good job. We feel good about him going in and getting that job done.”
Duran is 29 for 42 so far, for an impressive 69 percent completion rate. He’s thrown four touchdowns to only one interception.
The freshman doesn’t threaten with the same mobility as Gomez, who already had 128 yards and six touchdowns rushing, but can lead from the pocket.
Not all of the responsibility will fall on the shoulders of the freshman. The Eagles defense will be a deciding factor this week when they face PSJA North. Mission has only given up more than 17 points once, in their 42-38 loss to McAllen Memorial to start district play.
Detmer is counting on his defense to stand up and lead the team to a 3-1 record.
“We’ve played really good defense all year long and it’s been a big part of our success,” Detmer said. “Those guys have done a good job all year. We’ve had a big point of emphasis in getting our athletes over there on that side and being able to be versatile guys. We have a big challenge this week, obviously every week in this district is a challenging team and this is another one.”