MISSION — The Mission High Eagles continue to soar behind quarterback Jeremy Duran as they knocked out the San Benito Greyhounds 28-17 in the Class 6A bi-district round of the playoffs Friday at Tom Landry Stadium.

Duran continued to make his case as one of the premier quarterbacks in the Rio Grande Valley with another stellar night for Mission, throwing for 258 yards and, despite not getting a touchdown through the air, ended the night with three rushing scores.

Mission balanced its aerial attack with bruising runs from running back Andrew Maldonado, who carried the ball for 63 yards to go along with one touchdown.

The scoreless tie ended with 2:44 remaining during the first quarter, after the Eagles marched 55 yards down the field. Maldonado converted a critical fourth-and-3 to keep the drive alive deep into Greyhounds territory, which eventually led to a Duran quarterback sneak from the 1 to give the Eagles an early 7-0 lead.

The Greyhounds responded instantly as defensive back Leo Fuentes took the kickoff 78 yards to the house to even the score at 7.

During the second quarter, Duran complete a 23 yard over-the-shoulder pass between two defenders to wide receiver Gilbert Bernal down the left sideline, being pushed out at the 1. Duran finished the drive with his second rushing TD of the night.

The Mission defense held San Benito to five straight three-and-outs as they only allowed 40 passing yards and 6 rushing yards during the first half as San Benito quarterback Elijah Hernandez faced constant pressure from the Mission front seven.

Coming out of halftime, Duran was firing on all cylinders hitting receiver Justin Duran for a 6-yard completion, tight end Joey Ortiz for a 17-yard catch and run and an 18-yard jump ball to receiver Joe Luis Cortez that put Mission at the 1 for the third time. Maldonado ran up the middle for a score to extend the Mission lead to 20-7.

The lead increased to 27-10 as Duran put the finishing touch on a night to remember scoring his third rushing TD with 3:31 left in the third.

San Benito scored a touchdown late to cut the lead to 27-18 with a run from running back Gavin Suarez with 9:53 to go in the fourth and converting the two-point conversion. However, it was too late as the Mission defense stymied the San Benito attack.

Mission will face Laredo United South in the second round of the 6A Division I playoffs. As Laredo United South received a first-round forfeit win due to positive cases of COVID-19 its opponent’s program.

Tannor Moreno’s late pick-six sealed a 31-20 victory for the Zapata Hawks over Rio Grande City on Friday at Hawks Stadium in Zapata.

“It’s always great to win a football game. It’s always good for the program to win their football games, but today was kind of good,” Zapata head coach Joel Lopez said. “As we move on through the season, we’ve got to feel where we are getting better every week and I think that today we got better than last week.”

Zapata senior quarterback Mario Garcia ran offensive coordinator Jerry Lopez III’s air-raid offense to perfection, completing 29 of 49 passes for 376 yards and finding three different receivers — Josh Alvarez, Joe Chick and Marco Garcia — for touchdowns.

“Jerry is meticulous about throwing the football,” Joel Lopez said. “The air-raid style, he’s a true believer in the Mike Leach air-raid and, just, at this point, Mario has really picked it up and he believes in it now and he’s very confident about it. I spoke to him after the game and he says, ‘I think we did a lot better this week coach,’ so I think we are moving ahead.”

Zapata jumped out to a quick to 10–0 lead during the first quarter with a 40-yard field goal from Gustavo Rodriguez and a 3-yard touchdown pass from Garcia to Chick on a play-action play from the pistol formation.

Rio Grande City, which that lost many pieces of its 2019 district championship team from a year ago, turned to returning senior running back Marc Perez who garnered all-district honors last season and looks to be the main weapon for the Rattlers this season.

Perez single-handedly brought the Rattlers into the game with a 99-yard score, where he went untouched up the middle, and a 70-yard screen pass from junior quarterback Kevin Guerra up the right sideline, giving the Rattlers a 14-10 lead headed into halftime.

Both teams came out of the locker room flat, punting on five straight three-and-outs until Zapata was able to put together a 13-play drive that started from its own 1-yard line and ended on a 10-yard touchdown fade pass on a Garcia to Garcia connection to regain the lead, 17–14.

“A lot of times what I tell the offense, when you are stuck way back in your own territory, you have to think in terms of 10 yards,” Joel Lopez said. “You have to think in three downs to make 10 and that’s what we focus on as we go. We throw the ball a whole lot but we throw very high percentage passes and our kids have done real, real well.”

Rio Grande City attempted to mount a late-game comeback being down 24–20 with 1:33 left to go in the fourth quarter, but Tannor Moreno picked off Rio Grande City quarterback Kevin Guerra and ran it back for a score to put the game out of reach at 31–20.

“We looked like a team that needed this game,” Rio Grande City head coach Leo Mireles said. “I’m glad we had it so we got somewhere to start off but know we know what we need to fix.”

Rio Grande City (0-1, 0-0) will face Edcouch-Elsa (0-0) next Friday at Benny Layton Memorial Stadium. Zapata (1-1, 0-1) faces the Grulla Gators (0-2, 0-2) next Friday in Rio Grande City.