RAYMONDVILLE — For the Raymondville Bearkats, last year’s season opener against the La Feria Lions was a game they would rather forget.
Four ejected players, 218 passing yards given up and a 47-14 loss serves only one purpose now: Motivation.
“We’re all focused, we have a game plan and we’re all going to be focused,” said senior Fred Rodriguez. “We each have a job to do, we each have a role and we each count on the next person to do that role.
“We feed off of what happened last year because we had an ugly record last year and we definitely want to improve on that, and we know we have. It’s a different tempo and a different vibe this year.”
Rodriguez’s words didn’t fall on deaf ears as senior defensive end Darian Cortez echoed those sentiments.
“Last year’s game didn’t go the way that we wanted it to,” he said. “There were a lot of scuffles on the field from both teams, we got blown out and it wasn’t a game for us at all, and nothing like we expected.
“Like Fred was saying, we’re feeding off of that game and trying to come out with more intensity and more aggression.”
This season the Bearkats return a lot of talent on the defense line including Cortez, who had 11 sacks last year.
“He’s on the left side and people ran away from him a lot last year,” said Raymondville head coach Frank Cantu of Cortez. “He’s our defensive player of the year. He’s very good against the run and just somebody who’s been starting since his sophomore year.”
Another player who Cantu will be glad to have back is senior Rudy Ambriz.
“Rudy had a breakout year last season,” said Cantu. “Darian plays so well that he sometimes gets overshadowed but he is defiantly one of our leading tacklers and we expect a lot of good things from him.”