By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
The Brownsville St. Joseph Bloodhounds dropped their first game of the season Saturday in Austin, a 21-18 loss to the Austin Brentwood Bears in a TAPPS Division II District 3 opener.
St. Joseph coach Tino Villarreal was happy with the effort from his team and saw a lot of promise in their performance, but the Bloodhounds also know some things need to be fixed. Penalties, turnovers and special teams miscues were SJA’s kryptonite.
“I took out a lot of positives. Obviously, winning and losing is the name of the game, but this is the first outing we had after practicing for 2 1/2 weeks,” Villarreal said. “For us, it was just about getting better and seeing what we could do as far as executing and overall, not too bad. It just came down to those first-game butterflies and execution, and the turnover margin. We’ve got things to work on, but they’re easily fixable things.”
The Bloodhounds found the scoreboard on their first offensive drive as Tomas Edge, who was lined up at quarterback, ran for a 3-yard touchdown. The PAT was no good, foreshadowing a key difference that cost SJA in the long run.
Austin Brentwood quickly answered as quarterback Keller Jackson scored on a long touchdown run following a defensive pass interference penalty to take a 7-6 lead in the first quarter. After the score, SJA’s defense tightened up and kept the Bears’ offense from gaining much momentum for the remainder of the first half.
Defensive backs Sean Teo Ong and Adrian Del Pozo, along with defensive linemen Rodrigo Miner and Sergio Martinez, were especially disruptive. Miner and Martinez both sacked Jackson for big losses, but the plays were nullified by defensive penalties. Austin Brentwood turned up the passing game during the second quarter, and Teo Ong cashed in with an interception.
“Defense was the biggest question mark coming into the year for us,” Villarreal said. “We had a lot of guys graduate from that side of the ball, so we knew we were going to have to overhaul it. Not a bad showing. A couple of penalties extended drives, a couple of mistakes, but overall I thought we did a good job. I thought Sergio Martinez up front really put a lot of pressure on that team.”
Austin Brentwood’s defense stepped up, too. Senior running back Melik Kauachi carried the Bloodhounds inside the Bears’ 10-yard line twice, but the defense held and forced a turnover on downs both times. The Bears also notched a couple of turnovers, first on an interception by safety Seth Taylor and next with a fumble recovery by safety Riley Keesey.
The Bloodhounds did hit paydirt as junior quarterback Luigi Cristiano hit senior receiver Lucky Edge with a 6-yard touchdown pass with less than five minutes to play in the second quarter. The 2-point conversion failed, making it a 12-7 SJA advantage at halftime.
The Bears reclaimed the lead in the third after another SJA drive stalled out near the red zone. Immediately after a turnover on downs, Jackson broke free for a 73-yard touchdown run to make it 14-12 with 2:50 remaining in the quarter.
SJA responded and quickly got down to the 13-yard line after two big passes from Cristiano to senior receiver Max Lawler and Tomas Edge. Lucky Edge made a diving catch in the end zone, but a holding penalty negated the play and the Bloodhounds turned it over on downs again.
“Those penalties were just a couple of things that really either halted our drives or extended their drives and gave them opportunities. You can’t have those. Those are the little detail mistakes that can make or break the game, and we proved that today,” Villarreal said.
Austin Brentwood extended its lead midway through the fourth quarter on another Jackson rushing touchdown following a Bloodhounds fumble. With time dwindling, Kauachi ran hard and once again drove the SJA offense quickly downfield. Cristiano hit Lucky Edge on a 5-yard passing score, but a blocked PAT and a Bears recovery on the ensuing onside kick sealed the Bloodhounds’ fate.
“It’s early in the season, it’s no excuse, but our special teams could’ve been better. They scored three touchdowns, we scored three touchdowns, and yet we lost the game,” Villarreal said. “We have a lot of weapons offensively. We love our line, and we love our running back, Melik Kauachi, we know what he can do. I thought Luigi (Cristiano) did a great job of distributing the football today. He was in control of our tempo, and he had a lot of great looks and a lot of great plays for us today.”