CORPUS CHRISTI — The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers’ offense was unstoppable Thursday night at Cabaniss Staduim in Corpus Christi, with senior fullback Bryan Chavez’s 451 rushing yards and nine touchdowns leading the way.
The Chargers scored on 11 of their offensive possessions. The only possession they did not score on was when they kneeled on the final drive during a 74-59 win over the Victoria West Warriors to win a Class 5A DI area-round game.
“Phenomenal game offensively, perfect game,” Chargers head coach Kelley Lee said. ” I am proud we responded. We had a hard time stopping them, credit to them, they have some great offensive players and game plan. I am just proud of our resiliency to answer the call every time.”
Chavez scored his ninth touchdown from 5 yards and added touchdowns from 12, 25, 17 and 20 yards during the second half to outpace the Warriors.
“Shootouts to my offensive line and my running backs for the big holes,” Chavez said. “They were amazing.”
Victoria West kept the game within distance with the combination of quarterback Camden Reeper and D’Andre Fillmore. The duo connected for 75- and 45-yard touchdowns during the second half, but the Victoria West defense could not stop Chavez.
“I just want to comend our offensive line,” Lee said. “Obviously, Bryan Chavez had a phenomenal game, but that offensive line was outstanding from snap one to snap 80, and I am proud of them.”
With the score 34-23 and facing a fourth down on the Warriors’ 30-yard line, the impeccable performance by the Chargers’ offense looked to be halted, but Reece Sampayo found Gerry Gomez behind the Victoria West defense to put the Chargers up 41-23 at the half.
The final touchdown was only Sampayo’s second completion of the half as the triple-option churned out chunk plays against the Warriors’ defense at will.
Chavez finished the half with 212 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Chavez scored touchdowns from 10, 1, 8 and 40 yards. The 40-yard score put Brownsville Veterans up 34-23.
Chavez’s touchdowns were met with scores from Victoria West. Repper found Fillmore for two touchdowns, the first from 64 yards and the second from 36 yards. Repper punched one in himself from 3 yards to make it 21-20.
Brownsville Veterans running back Jay Valdez opened the scoring on a 25-yard run. The senior broke multiple tackles to find the end zone during the first two minutes.
The Chargers (10-2) will play the winner of PSJA North (11-0) and Corpus Christi Miller (10-1) at Sams Memorial Stadium in the third round of the playoffs.
“I heard it has been a while since there was a third-round game at Sams with a Brownsville team,” Lee said. “It is phenomenal to come home to our home city and play in front of our home crowd where we have not lost many games.”