RGVSports.com writer and podcast host Greg Luca recaps Week 5 of the Rio Grande Valley high school football season. Powerhouses clashed in District 32-6A, one of the year’s biggest upsets took place in 31-6A, and the picture in every other district became just a little bit more clear.
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GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
WESLACO — When Weslaco East was preparing to face Edinburg Economedes two weeks ago, coach Mike Burget told defensive coordinator Rene Guzman to keep some things under wraps. Save the counter to the slot-T offense for Week 5 — East’s District 32-6A opener against rival Weslaco High.
With resources limited, Weslaco East struggled to contain Economedes on the ground, giving up 281 rushing yards in a 23-16 loss. But on Friday, East reaped the rewards of keeping some secrets under wraps, stifling the Weslaco High running game from start to finish in a 24-7 win at Bobby Lackey Stadium.
“I told Coach Guzman two weeks ago I didn’t want him playing the same defense,” Burget said. “We were paying the same offense back to back. I sort of tied his hands two weeks ago, and I’m sorry I did that. His staff and his kids were a little bit angry this week, and they showed it on the field.”
Weslaco High ran 28 times for 64 yards, an average of just 2.3 yards per carry. The Panthers entered the game averaging 251.3 yards per game on the ground, rushing at a clip of 5.6 yards per carry.
After the first quarter, the Panthers did not pick up another first down until the game’s final 5 minutes, when the Wildcats already had a 24-0 lead.
“Everybody did their jobs and played technique,” linebacker Adrian Duran said. “Don’t look in the backfield, because all of the misdirection will lead you off the play. You have to look at the guards, who are the keys for us.”
Guzman highlighted Duran as the leader of the defense on Friday. He also lauded the play of defensive linemen Fernando Garza, Luis Aguirre and Jacob Banda, saying the group up front delivered on the challenge of setting the tone.
With extra time to watch film during the Week 4 bye, Guzman said the Wildcats came in with a stronger understanding of what they’d be up against.
“We ran the defense we finally decided to do, and our kids just executed,” Guzman said. “There was no thinking. When we take the thinking out of the whole thing, the kids react to what they saw. That was the difference tonight, as opposed to the other night.”
Burget also had a trick up his sleeve on offense, making Roy Pedraza the team’s primary ball carrier. Typically splitting time between fullback and linebacker, Pedraza played almost exclusively on offense Friday. He finished the game with 20 carries for 158 yards and two touchdowns.
“We knew Roy was one of the top runners in the Valley, but he played defense the first three weeks,” Burget said. “We knew they wouldn’t expect that.”
In East’s first three games, Pedraza had run just 23 times for 108 yards. But with regular workhorse Fabian Castro limited by injury, Pedraza carried the ball up the middle again and again.
His first touchdown, a 32-yard scamper in the second quarter, was his fifth carry for 59 yards on that drive alone. On East’s next possession he ran twice and caught a pass for 13 yards before capping the drive with a 31-yard score.
J.C. Vargas scored first for the Wildcats, taking a pitch left, cutting back across the field and sprinting 54 yards to the end zone.
“I just find the hole and go through it,” Pedraza said. “(The coaches) prepared me to be a better back during practice, and I just kept on improving.”
Burget describes Pedraza, a state powerlifting champ, as a bowling ball, plowing into would-be tacklers.
As Pedraza kept pushing his way down the field, Weslaco High was having a hard time even getting its offense in the game. During the third quarter, the Panthers ran just three offensive plays.
The Wildcats’ longest scoring drive was their last, as the team covered 55 yards in 13 plays and eight minutes, 32 seconds to set up a 34-yard field goal for Orlando Fuentes.
“That was a big factor,” Pedraza said. “I feel like they would have gotten more momentum if we didn’t control the clock as well as we did today.”
GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
LA JOYA — Joseph Moreno said transferring to La Joya High as a senior and having to learn new coaches, new teammates and a new system was a challenge.
He felt he had already established himself in two seasons at McAllen Rowe, racking up 1,367 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. But with his mom working in the La Joya school district and his dad, Joe, taking a receiving coach position with the Coyotes, Moreno found himself starting from scratch.
“Coming in, I wasn’t as happy,” Moreno said. “But now I am. We’ve proven that we can win games, and I’m just happy for that.”
With Moreno as the focal point of the offense and a do-it-all threat, La Joya High cruised to a 21-0 win against Mission High in its District 30-6A opener on Thursday at La Joya ISD Stadium.
Moreno ran 12 times for 91 yards and hauled in three passes for 113 yards and a score, leading the Coyotes in both facets.
“The biggest challenge was when he came in, he didn’t know too many guys,” La Joya coach Reuben Farias said. “But the young men embraced him, and he felt right in, like brothers. And I told the team, this is a young man who, his father is helping coach our team. His son is going to be a big part of our program on the field. He’s an asset. And right now, he’s been fulfilling a lot of those things that we expected from him.”
After playing primarily receiver in Rowe’s air-raid attack, Moreno has been asked to fill every role in La Joya’s offense. He’ll split out wide, take handoffs from a tailback position and run sweeps or end-arounds from the slot or tight end.
Moreno said none of the tasks were new on their own, but that the burden of doing them all together was a significant change.
“It’s different,” Moreno said. “I’m not going to say we don’t have any support here, but at Rowe it was already set over there. Over here, coming in, they were looking at me and really wanting me to produce. But I’m doing that, so I’m happy.”
The Coyotes’ offense entered Thursday averaging a district-worst 135.8 yards per game. Against Mission, La Joya came through with 315, including a total of 204 for Moreno.
He gained 26 on an end-around that set up quarterback Irving Garcia’s 7-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and in the fourth he extended La Joya’s lead to 14-0 when he hauled in a 71-yard scoring pass from Garcia down the seam on 3rd-and-20.
“I knew it was a touchdown from the start,” Moreno said. “The safety had cheated over to the left, and it was an open seam.”
Garcia scored La Joya’s final touchdown on a 2-yard sneak.
Meanwhile, La Joya’s defense continued to prove why Farias calls the group the backbone of the team, posting its second shutout of the year. Even with leading tackler Fernando De La Rosa sidelined by an ankle injury, the Coyotes allowed just 209 yards of total offense. “We were just trying to come in and limit the yards that Mission had,” linebacker Rey Hernandez said. “We knew they had a strong offense, and we were just trying to limit the points they could score. Thank God, we limited them to zero.”
Neither Eagles quarterback could find a footing on Thursday. Freshman Damian Gomez finished 4 of 12 with 43 yards and two interceptions, while senior Rudy Treviño, in his first action since a Week 2 injury, completed 4 of 7 attempts for 18 yards.
Mission picked up 148 yards on the ground but averaged just 4.2 yards per carry. The Eagles got as close as La Joya High’s 11 before Tito Delgado came up with an interception late in the first half. With 7:49 to play in the fourth quarter, Mission turned the ball over on a dropped lateral, setting up La Joya High’s final touchdown drive at the 21-yard line.
“They were huge. Something we’ve talked about is being good with the ball and not having the turnovers, and not making mistakes that hurt you,” Mission High coach Koy Detmer said. “We have to be much sharper and much better with our execution. We have to be better all the way around.”
GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
WESLACO — When Weslaco East center David Decanini was preparing to make his first varsity start last season, a text message from his older brother, Jerry, melted away all of his nerves.
“My words were just, ‘Have fun, and remember what Dad taught us when we were little,’” said Jerry, now in his sophomore year as a walk-on at Sul Ross. “And the last thing I told him was about our cousin. Saying, ‘If Sam was here, Sam would be proud of you. He would be laughing with me and you right now. Just do it for Sam.’ That’s all I said.”
Now in his senior year as the starting center at Weslaco East, David is carrying on the nearly 15-year tradition of interior offensive linemen in his family. His cousins Joe, Cat and Sam Salazar all played for East, and his brother was a standout at center before his graduation in 2014.
David said he’s been especially motivated by the memory of Sam, who died just before the start of last football season when he fell from a Brownsville water tower while performing routine maintenance on an antenna for Orbit Broadband. He was 21 years old.
“That was a very tough day, when I got that call from my dad telling me Sam had passed away,” David said. “Immediately, I walked out of class and started tearing up, knowing he was like a brother to me.”
“After practice, I went home, and everyone was crying,” David continued. “Everyone was all down. And his mom, she told me, ‘Don’t worry about us. You keep on playing football and keep on doing your thing.’ And that’s what I did.’”
Sam, who played his senior season in 2011, took a critical role in teaching the Decanini brothers the center position. Jerry said Sam used to drive him to and from middle school. When Jerry’s practice was finished, he would walk over to watch Sam’s practice at Weslaco East.
Once Jerry reached the high school level, Sam showed him how to snap.
“In middle school, I couldn’t shotgun snap to save my life,” Jerry said. “Sam just taught me ways. He said it was just like throwing a football. Throw it back there, no matter what. Make your forearm hit your hip, and that will give you the perfect form. And ever since then, that helped me.”
David has been playing interior offensive line since he was about 7 years old, in peewee or TYFA. He remembers Sam would always come to his games and, like with Jerry, show him how to snap the ball.
David watched closely as Sam and Jerry played their high school careers, attending nearly every game, even if it meant a drive to San Antonio. He can rattle off the records of each team from memory, and he said he is pushed by their success.
As a freshman at Weslaco East, David served as a ball boy on varsity game nights. He said he was always trying to peek in on the team’s huddle, or at least keep a close eye on Jerry. He also practiced alongside his brother as a sophomore, during Jerry’s senior season. “I noticed he wouldn’t back down from any big guy at all, even if they’re 300 pounds or 280 pounds, 6-foot-5 through 6-flat,” David said. “He’d always just play his game. He’d be low, he’d keep his feet moving, and he’d bring the intensity.”
As a teammate, Jerry taught David the ins and outs of the offensive system. Now, he communicates with David by text message. Jerry said he got a message when East beat McAllen Memorial, then another when the team lost to Edinburg Economedes, warning him not to watch the game.
“I just responded saying, ‘It looks like you need help with your o-line,’” Jerry said. “’You guys are there, but you don’t trust each other yet.’ And he responded saying, ‘What do you want me to do so we can get along more?’ I told him what we did, is we would just hang out more. We made practice fun.”
Weslaco East’s offensive line has been up and down so far this season, with David as one of the few holdovers on the unit. He stands only about 5-foot-9 and weighs around 200 pounds, which East coach Mike Burget said is the norm for the family. Each was undersized but brought a hard-nosed attitude and embraced East’s powerlifting program to become a force in the trenches.
“They’re all made in one mold: they give everything they’ve got,” Burget said. “I haven’t had one Decanini or Salazar that loafed on the football field. All great leaders. Quiet. Led by example. … I wish the Salazars and Decaninis would have eight or nine more brothers. Then, I’d be OK. It’s been a great family history.”
David said he tries to overcome a size disadvantage by harkening back to traditional fables, like David vs. Goliath. He’ll face another huge test in that regard at 7 p.m. tonight, when East squares off against Weslaco High in the The Monitor’s Game of the Week at Bobby Lackey Stadium in Weslaco.
Before the game begins, he will likely recite the prayer he and his brother have adopted since last season.
“Dear Lord, please help us in the field of battle,” Jerry said. “We’d like to thank you for another opportunity in the sport we love to play. Please let our grandma know that we’re here fighting, and we ask you to call for our cousin Sam, to watch us play the beautiful game he taught us.”
GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Long before the start of the season, Mission High coach Koy Detmer sat in his office with quarterbacks Rudy Treviño and Damian Gomez and talked about the responsibilities of the position.
The Valley’s all-time leading passer and a nine-year NFL veteran, Detmer shared his outlook on the attitude, demeanor and approach required to be a successful leader under center. Part of that process, he said, is not just taking command of the huddle, but looking out for one another.
“We always are each other’s support,” Detmer said. “No matter what is being talked about, or what might be being said or whatever, we always hang together. If we do that, we’re going to be able to pull the team together and keep moving forward no matter what is happening, and be a true team.”
Detmer said that mentality came to Treviño and Gomez naturally. Both have started this season, with Treviño getting the nod in Week 1 and Gomez stepping in after Treviño was injured in Week 2.
Though Treviño is cleared to return and getting close to full strength in practice, Gomez will make the start in tonight’s District 30-6A opener against La Joya High.
While the competition for the job will continue week-to-week, the two signal callers remain supportive, and Treviño said they bring out the best in each other. Learning under a coach who spent the majority of his nine NFL seasons as a backup, both have been taught how to be patient and make a positive impact from the sidelines.
“It’s like we’re brothers. We’re just competing,” Gomez said. “It’s like two brothers in a fist fight. Same thing, where they always still get along.”
In Week 1 against PSJA North, Treviño completed 7 of 13 passes for 89 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Detmer was complimentary of Treviño’s performance, praising him for picking up a complicated system in relatively short order. The coach was impressed with how well Treviño rattled off the fresh terminology and took charge of the huddle, but Treviño couldn’t help feeling like he missed too many reads and left opportunities out on the field.
Treviño was relishing the opportunity to continue his improvement before suffering a sprained AC joint against Mission Veterans in Week 2. On a quarterback sneak, he fell in a way that his elbow planted hard into the field, generating violent pressure on his shoulder. He missed the rest of that game, plus Weeks 3 and 4, but Detmer taught him to take something positive from that period.
“In some ways, being able to step back and see it from behind and watch things unfold, sometimes you actually are able to learn a little bit more,” Detmer said. “Sometimes, seeing it from a different perspective can be a good thing.”
From the sideline, Treviño would keep a close eye on the defense and relay any observations or suggestions to Gomez.
A freshman, Gomez said he was shocked when Treviño was lost to injury. He never expected to play so early in his career, but the unforeseen circumstance didn’t rattle him out of his calm disposition or lead him to change his play style.
“My whole life, I’ve been a playmaker,” Gomez said. “If I’m going to be a backup, whenever my time is, I’ll be ready to shine.”
In three games, Gomez has completed 16 of 32 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns against one interception. Given that Gomez had only first been exposed to the offensive system last month, Detmer said he was pleased with how comfortably Gomez handled the job.
Treviño, too, was happily surprised to see Gomez perform so well on such little notice.
“Never getting a snap, and then how he came and played against Veterans, that was awesome,” Treviño said. “He was outstanding.”
Gomez said Treviño taught him to be a leader and take charge of the huddle. From Detmer, Gomez learned patience and the ability to read the field, ditching his middle school tendency to tuck the ball and try to make something happen with his feet.
He’s also gleaned Detmer’s mentality of staying locked in on the sidelines, motivating teammates and being prepared for action on a moment’s notice.
Whether it is Gomez or Treviño assuming that sideline role more often in future weeks, Mission still plans to lean on its quarterback camaraderie.
“They support each other out there,” Detmer said. “When Rudy was playing, Damian was there to be a conversation, and try to help and say, ‘I’m seeing this or that.’ And same thing. When Rudy was injured, he didn’t just go away. He was right there on the sideline, and every time Damian would come off, he could have that little conversation with him and keep him going, which is great. That shows senior leadership, and the kinds of guys those two guys are.”
BY GREG LUCA AND MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
When Fernando De La Rosa left La Joya High before the end of his junior year last spring to start working with his parents, coach Reuben Farias wasn’t sure if he would be returning to the defensive backfield come fall.
De La Rosa ranked fourth on the 2015 team with 53 tackles, but he told Farias that he was contemplating not coming back for his senior year.
“We had assumed he wasn’t going to play,” Farias said. “But right now, he’s one of the young men that is anchoring the secondary.”
De La Rosa opted to come back, and through four games he ranks tied for the team lead with 25 tackles.
He’s listed on the roster at 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds, although Farias admits that weight figure might be slightly inflated. Still, his stature hasn’t prevented him from ranking as one of the team’s hardest hitters.
“He’s a very physical player,” Farias said. “He’ll come and lay a hit on them. He’s not going to shy away from contact. If he has a chance to tag guys, he will. He’s going to light you up.”
De La Rosa always impressed Farias with his attitude and effort, so the coaches opted to move him to free safety from strong safety for this season.
There, he has a better opportunity to read and react to plays, using his speed to find the ball on every snap.
“I know he was kind of hesitant at the beginning of the school year and during the offseason when we were making that switch,” Farias said. “But now, he realizes that it’s for the better. He’s going to be a better leader and a better motivator. He’s going to be involved more from the free safety position than he was last year.”
Farias said De La Rosa is looking into the possibility of graduating in December.
BACK ON TRACK
After winning 20 straight regular-season games dating back to its 2014 opener, McAllen Memorial suffered back-to-back losses against Weslaco East and San Benito in Weeks 2 and 3.
“We’re not used to losing,” Memorial coach Bill Littleton said. “It was tough. It’s tough on our community. Tough on us. Tough on the coaches. Nobody ever wants to go out and lose a ball game. But sometimes, you have to lose to learn what you need to get better at. I think our kids responded well and continue to fight and battle and continue to get better every week.”
The Mustangs showed their resiliency last week, knocking off the Valley’s No. 2 ranked team, Los Fresnos, 32-30 on the road.
Littleton said playing well on offense, defense and special teams to come out with a win gave the team momentum heading into its district opener Friday against La Joya Palmview.
“It was probably the most complete ball game we’ve had,” Littleton said. “There were maybe spots we played better here and there, but as a team in all three phases of the game, that was probably our best game.”
Littleton credited the improvement to the team’s young skill players growing up. Senior Emilio Mendez has been the Mustangs’ leader with 440 rushing yards and six touchdowns, but he is the only senior who regularly touches the ball. Junior quarterback Angel Almaguer, junior back JoJo Williams and freshman back Campbell Speights have been the other key skill players.
“Every ball game they get under their belt they get a little better, and their confidence continues to grow,” Littleton said.
RELYING ON THE DEFENSE
Despite Edinburg High posting the second-best defense in terms of yards allowed (262.2 per game) in District 31-6A, coach J.J Leija sees room for improvement.
At times, his Bobcats have given up big plays, and it’s the reason why he feels his team has dropped two of the first three games. Still, the first-year coach takes solace in his team’s ability to keep games close as they ease into a new system.
“Defensively, they’re all putting their weight in,” Leija said. “They’re all believing in the package (a 4-2-5 alignment with multiple fronts). They’re all in on what we’re teaching them. We’re a young group, so hopefully we can carry it into the next two weeks, where we keep it close.”
After taking on Economedes, Edinburg High will face Edinburg Vela, which averages 42.7 points per game. The Bobcats, for their part, boast a middling offense, though they saw improvement in their last game, two weeks ago against La Joya Palmview.
Edinburg put up 390 yards of offense on its way to a 19-13 win. What’s slowed the Bobcats down on that side of the ball is turnovers. But as Edinburg High’s defense continues delivering, Leija believes his team should remain competitive.
“We’re a young group, and they’re still learning,” Leija said. “We’re trying to fix things, because as they say, the best defense is a good offense. So we’re very fortunate to have stayed within striking distance. We’re just looking for better execution.”
SHORING UP ERRORS
Having started the season 0-3, PSJA Memorial coach Michael Uribe said he worked with his team on limiting some of the “self-induced errors” that have prevented it from capitalizing on opportunities.
“Whether it’s coverage busts, misalignments, (errors) returning punts or kickoffs that have cost us field position, dropped balls which have prevented us from getting first down, we have to give our opponents credits,” Uribe said. “But those are things we have to clean up.”
Scoring only one touchdown and allowing 107 points, Uribe said the team didn’t use last week’s bye so much to scheme for its 31-6A opener against PSJA North as it did reinforce fundamentals: blocking, tackling, route-running, etc.
Also, with a relatively inexperienced team, Uribe said he felt conditioning could give his team an edge as it enters a six-game district slate. So, the past two weeks, he had his team running more.
“Our kids have no quit,” Uribe said. “They’re giving maximum effort. They’re not being critical of each other. It really has been a family atmosphere. This is an organization that has gone through rough times, but it’s because we’re sticking through this that we’re going to get better sooner rather than later. Those are things that don’t stand out on the stat sheet.”
RGVSports.com writer Dennis Silva II joins host Greg Luca to preview the fifth week of the Rio Grande Valley high school football season, which for many teams signals the start of district play. After breaking down the top 10, the guys project the order of finish top to bottom in each of the Valley’s five Class 5A and 6A districts. The show wraps up with a lookahead to the week’s top match-ups and a new Dennis Silva II Hypothetical of the Week.
The podcast is now available on iTunes. Follow this link to subscribe.
RGVSports.com writers Dennis Silva II and Mario Aguirre join host Greg Luca to recap Week 4 of the Rio Grande Valley high school football season. The guys break down Mission Veterans’ defensive surge past Roma, McAllen Memorial‘s surprising win against Los Fresnos, and the rest of the week’s action. The show wraps up with the latest selections for the Dennis Silva II Hypothetical of the Week.
The podcast is now available on iTunes. Follow this link to subscribe.
GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
LA JOYA — Through one half of Thursday’s game, Edcouch-Elsa was struggling to pull away from La Joya Juarez-Lincoln. Quarterback Marco Aguinaga had done enough to build a 7-point halftime lead, but the No. 3-ranked team in the Valley hardly looked crisp.
Then, the Yellowjackets came out of the break with a fresh offensive look. Instead of mostly empty sets, Edcouch-Elsa lined up as many as three running backs on almost every play, either pounding their way into the end zone or using play-action to connect on deep throws. Before 6 minutes had gone by, Edcouch-Elsa had found the end zone three times, turning the contest into a blowout in an eventual 47-14 win at La Joya ISD Stadium.
“The offense was flat,” Edcouch-Elsa coach Joe Marichalar said. “They got together and said, ‘Look, they’re giving us this. They’re putting everyone in the back, and the box is light.’ When the box is light, you have to run the ball. So that’s what we did in the second half, and it turned out pretty good for us.”
With the win, Edcouch-Elsa closes out its three-game non-district slate 2-1, including a 34-30 win against Edinburg Vela to snap that team’s 16-game regular-season win streak.
E-E begins the District 32-5A season next week against Donna North.
“We’re on a positive run right now,” Aguinaga said. ”Today wasn’t the best that we’ve played, but we still got the win. So I’m proud of the way the guys played today.”
In the first half, as in E-E’s opening two games of the season, the offense was all Aguinaga. He threw for 170 yards and two scores and was also the team’s leading rusher, with four carries for 19 yards.
The Huskies did all they could to pester him throughout the night, but he consistently shrugged off, stepped over or ran around would-be tacklers, extending plays long enough for receivers to get open. He rolled out to his right and found JJ Flores for a 34-yard score in the first quarter, then found AJ Rodriguez down the left seam for a 39-yard strike in the second.
“Marco is a playmaker,” Marichalar said. “He’ll let us know, ‘Coach, just let me be me, and let me do what I do.’ Sometimes, you have to just let him be Marco, and that’s what he does.”
In the second half, Edcouch-Elsa hit Juarez-Lincoln with an entirely new offense. Whereas the first half had been almost exclusively shotgun spread, the Yellowjackets opened the second half with Aguinaga under center, surrounded by three backs.
After entering the halftime break with five carries for 22 yards, the Yellowjackets ran the ball five times for 40 yards and a touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter, capped by a 19-yard scoring run by John Mike Gonzalez. Listed as a defensive back on the Yellowjackets’ roster, Gonzalez had not carried the ball in the team’s first two games.
“We’re just catering to what we have,” Marichalar said. “We have a pretty good offensive line. Obviously, we have a passing game. But when it’s not on, we know we can ground and pound and give you that diversity with the strength of our offensive line.”
Edcouch-Elsa’s offense looked extremely comfortable in every facet out of the tight set. Aguinaga found Rodriguez for a 49-yard gain down the right sideline, then Flores took a handoff and ran left on an end-around play that completely fooled the Huskies defense, resulting in a 22-yard score.
After a surprise onside kick, E-E scored again on a 14-yard, play-action pass from Aguinaga to Flores that made the score 34-7.
“We saw that they couldn’t guard us, and we attacked the mismatches,” Flores said.
Edcouch-Elsa continued to pour it on in the fourth, with Jorge Gomez running for a 61-yard touchdown that eclipsed his rushing total in the team’s first two games combined. He also added a 1-yard score later in the period.
Aguinaga finished 12-of-25 passing for 233 yards and 3 touchdowns, with Flores (3 catches, 75 yards, 2 TDs) and Rodriguez (4 catches, 103 yards, 1 TD) leading the way through the air. Once E-E went to the option ground game, the backs started to come alive, as well. Gomez finished with 7 carries for 119 yards and two scores.
“We’re comfortable with that,” Aguinaga said. “We practice that day in and day out. That’s one of our good offenses that we run.”
Thursday also marked the final non-district game for Juarez-Lincoln, which opens play in District 30-6A next week against McAllen Rowe.
Eddie Hernandez scored the Huskies’ lone touchdown, while Adonis Barillas led the team with 18 carries for 89 yards.
Albert Martinez returned a kickoff 93 yards for a score after the game was well out of reach.
The contest became chippy during the fourth quarter, as Juarez-Lincoln’s Benito Gonzalez and an Edcouch-Elsa player were ejected from the game after exchanging punches following a play. Juarez-Lincoln’s Eliutt Gonzalez was also ejected a few snaps later.
GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Joseph Valdez said he didn’t have the respect of his teammates when he took over a starting linebacker role as a sophomore last season at La Joya Juarez-Lincoln. The other players were older, bigger, more experienced and not ready to take leadership from a newcomer.
“Last year, we had people always joking around. They wouldn’t listen to me,” Valdez said. “This year, I have the whole team come together. I talk to them. We get it together. There’s no joking around anymore. There’s no playing around. We’re serious, all the time.”
Now, Valdez is lauded as the brains of the defense by coach Tommy Garcia. Benito Gonzalez, the other linebacker in the Huskies’ 4-2-5, is the brawn.
Together, that duo is the core of a Juarez-Lincoln unit that has allowed just 201.7 yards per game in starting the season 2-1 entering a matchup against Edcouch-Elsa at 7 tonight in La Joya.
“My linebackers are playing really well. They’re lighting people up,” said Elias Gutierrez, a junior safety and one of the unit’s best players. “They have a lot of intensity. Joseph, every day he brings it to practice. He’s always screaming and dancing.”
Garcia has seen both Valdez and Gonzalez make major strides from when they were thrust into the starting lineup last year as sophomores. Valdez, who said he felt intimidated when he first earned the job, is in control of the huddle, diagnosing the offense and making sure everyone is lined up correctly.
He said he carved out that role by paying attention in practice, studying game film and not being afraid to text or ask coaches for advice about what the team is doing wrong and how he can try to help them fix it.
Valdez also tries to be an emotional leader for the Huskies, parroting Garcia’s messages to help pump them up and even turning the tables on his coach from time to time.
“I always tell him, ‘Where’s your mad dog face?’” Valdez said. “’When are you going to run the routes and when are you going to do everything we do?’ He says that he’s too old already.”
Valdez said he isn’t afraid to be vocal with the opposition, either. If anything, he said he’s louder than last season in his efforts to try to get into the other team’s heads.
Garcia has seen Valdez become better at keeping his cool through those exchanges.
“Last year, he was a sophomore, and he was very easily where he would lose his temper,” Garcia said. “This year, he knows they’re going to do that on purpose to try to get into his head. He has that experience now where he knows he can’t afford to do that.”
Where Valdez is more vocal, Gonzalez is an “animal,” Garcia said. He’s the bigger, faster, stronger and more agile of the two players. Capable of playing sideline to sideline, he is a nearly perfect fit at the linebacker position, even if he admits he was “a little scared” coming into the fold as just a sophomore last year. He prides himself on knowing how to read an offense and having an idea of where a play is headed as soon as the opponent breaks its huddle.
Still, he was for a time hesitant to play that role after starting at quarterback on the freshman team.
“To be honest, I prefer to play offense way more than defense,” Gonzalez said. “But I don’t think I’ll ever get the chance.”
Gonzalez believes he was put at linebacker because his two older brothers had played defensive line and linebacker. But Garcia said the move was made because he knew Andrew Rodriguez would be ready to step in at quarterback this year, and because Gonzalez can still see spot play on offense while holding down a full-time spot at linebacker.
“Benito has come a long way as far as his attitude,” Garcia said. “He played freshman football and he was our starting quarterback, and we moved him to linebacker and he was not too happy with it at the beginning. Once he got the hang of it, he started embracing that he could be really, really good at linebacker.”
Gonzalez and Valdez also stand out because of their character, Garcia said. Valdez is the consummate “Yes sir, no sir” type of player. His mother works as a guidance counselor at La Joya High, so he said she always keeps him on point with his AP course load. If anything is out of place, she’ll find out, and Valdez and Garcia will quickly hear about it.
Gonzalez balances class and football against working with his father in construction either on the weekends or whenever Garcia cuts practice short. Typically, Gonzalez’s workload includes fixing up any missed details — perhaps something like installing a missing brace — and cleaning up the job site once most of the work is done.
“I don’t have to worry about them,” Garcia said. “In the past, we had some kids we had to worry about them passing, or misbehaving in the classroom. But these kids are great kids.”