MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
ROMA — Diego Hernandez was persistent on making the big play.
He threw too wide at times, too far in others, though it never seemed to rattle the Mission Veterans Memorial sophomore quarterback from battling through it. In his first career start, Hernandez kept chipping away until finally finding his footing midway through the second quarter to guide the Patriots to a 14-0 victory over Roma on Friday at Gladiator Arena.
Filling in for injured starter Santos Villarreal (sprained ankle), Hernandez bounced back from a sequence in which he completed 2 of 7 passes by engineering a 14-play, 99-yard drive, fueled by bombs of 34 and 42 yards, respectively, to help put the Patriots on the scoreboard.
Within a three-minute span, he threw two TD passes, highlighting a night in which he completed 23 of 42 attempts for 289 yards.
“It’s good just to get a big play going every once in a while,” Hernandez said. “Get the team rallying, change the momentum, get something going.
“The O-line performed well, the receivers were catching the ball. I had a couple bad throws and came out sloppy in the second half, but it was enough (to win). And the defense pulled through.”
In the days leading up to their District 31-5A battle, Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin acknowledged the possibility of his eighth-ranked team falling behind 0-2 to start district — a considerable setback for a team once aspiring to win district.
The Patriots (4-2, 1-1) dodged that bullet, however, with Hernandez leading the charge. He led two consecutive scoring drives in impressive fashion — one methodically milking the clock, the other in a quick burst.
By connecting on passes for 34, 8 and 42 yards and rushing for 8, Hernandez pushed the Patriots to the opposing 22. Then, he completed attempts of 4 and 14 yards, before finding Roman De Leon in the end zone on a 10-yard TD with 5:21 left in the second quarter.
Ever composed, Hernandez appeared ready to jump and collide into running back John Garcia in celebration, before the two stopped and shook hands.
Following a Roma three-and-out, Hernandez needed all of two plays to put the Patriots up 14-0. After hooking up with De Leon on a 35-yard pass, he found Jay De Leon on a 27-yard score.
“The guy is intelligent. He knows the offense. He’s good,” Gilpin said. “I said this maybe 20 times this week, ‘Diego, we don’t need you to be Santos. We need you to be Diego. Do the things that you do well.’ And he did. We missed some throws, there’s no doubt. But he also made some big throws.”
With the loss, Roma dropped to 3-3-1 overall, 1-2 in district.
INJURY UPDATE
With a boot on his right foot, Villarreal watched Friday night’s game from the sideline. During warmups, Villarreal stood on the field on crutches, along with teammates Adam Solis and Raymond Santos.
There’s no timetable yet for Villarreal’s return, though the senior quarterback remained optimistic that it’d be soon.
“I feel good,” Villarreal said. “Right now, the swelling’s going down a lot and hopefully I’ll be back next week.”