By MARK MOLINA
Staff Writer
LOS FRESNOS — The Los Fresnos Falcons offense had gone missing during the past few games, but they found it against the Rivera Raiders.
Sophomore running back Christian Maldonado rushed for 135 yards and a score and freshman quarterback Matthew Padilla tossed three scores as the Falcons beat the Raiders 37-7 to earn their first District 32-6A win of the season Friday night at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium in Los Fresnos.
The Falcons rode the underclassmen to 405 yards of offense and 37 points, the most since Week 3’s 42-13 win at Edcouch-Elsa.
“We started a freshman quarterback, and we have a sophomore tailback we moved over from linebacker and a sophomore offensive lineman,” Los Fresnos coach Patrick Brown said. “We have a lot of young kids and, listen, we’re going to take what we can get. We had three losses in a row, and we’re happy to get this one. Hat’s off to the Rivera kids, because they played hard.”
Padilla was 6 for 16 through the air for 195 yards, one pick and the three scores.
The Falcons improved to 1-1 in district (3-4 overall), and the Raiders fell to 0-7 and 0-2.
The Falcons struck first when receiver Daniel Dennie took a short Padilla pass 59 yards for a score to make it 6-0 after a missed point-after attempt.
Rivera answered on the ensuing possession when quarterback Andres Perez found a wide-open Jesus Camarillo for an 86-yard touchdown pass down the right side of the field to make it 7-6 with 7:23 to play during the first quarter.
That was a bulk of the Raiders’ offense, as it posted just 140 total yards. That included minus-17 yards on the ground.
Despite the performance, Raiders coach Tom Chavez sees improvement in a young team plagued with injuries.
“I have to give a lot of credit to (the team),” Chavez said. “The score could have been double. Our guys never quit, they just keep working hard. We have a lot of young guys and we have had some injuries, but we can’t control the injuries. I think this is building character, even outside of football with these guys just hanging in here. I think that’s one thing that football does, because these guys just never quit.”
Perez finished with 140 yards on 12 of 26 passing, with two interceptions and one touchdown. Ramsey Rocha also completed one pass for 15 yards.
Camarillo caught nine passes for 146 yards and one score.
Los Fresnos followed the Rivera touchdown with 31 unanswered points.
A 29-yard Jerry Hernandez field goal and a 37-yard touchdown run from Maldonado on back-to-back possessions made it 16-7 early in the second quarter.
A 1-yard Martin Degollado touchdown made it 23-7 at the break.
In the middle of the third, Padilla found Sergio Martinez in the middle of the field on a short pass that the quarterback-turned-receiver took to the house for 92 yards on a second-and-24 play to make it 30-7.
It’s the second week in a row that Padilla found Martinez for a touchdown. The duo connected for a 37-yard score last week at Harlingen South.
Martinez finished the game with two catches for 113 yards and one touchdown.
After an interception by linebacker Cameron Rivera on the ensuing Raiders possession, Padilla threw his third touchdown of the night to Elian Gonzalez for 20 yards, concluding the scoring on the night.
Jaime Garcia also had an interception for the Falcons.