By MARK MOLINA | The Brownsville Herald
Going up against the undefeated Lopez Lobos for first place in District 32-5A, the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers once again looked towards Gustavo Vasquez and their defense to bring them home.
Vasquez found the end zone four times and the Chargers defense held the Lobos to one of their lowest scoring outputs of the season as Brownsville Veterans rolled to a 35-21 victory Saturday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
The Charger defense shut down the Lopez offense early in the game, creating short fields for Vasquez and the Chargers’ running game to take advantage of, leading to a 21-0 first-half advantage the visitors on the scoreboard would not relinquish.
“Our defense came up big and provided us with a lot of short fields and a lot of good scoring opportunities and that really was the difference,” Brownsville Veterans head coach David Cantu said. “It was just team defense … applying pressure and making big stops. (Lopez) probably has the best defense in the Valley so I’ll give props to my offensive coordinator Sammy Montalvo and my offensive line coach Gilbert Myers — they had a plan that was magnificent.”
The Chargers dominated the trenches, allowing them to keep the Lopez offense at bay and salt the game away late.
Two of Lopez’s scores came following Charger special teams miscues. The other came on a big pass play near the end of the first half.
“We should’ve done a better job in the trenches, we should’ve done a better job offensively and I should’ve called a better game,” Lopez head coach Jason Starkey said. “We fell far enough behind and we couldn’t recover. We can’t fall behind that early against a team that well coached and that athletic. I got out coached tonight and the best team won tonight.”
The Chargers improve to 6-1 overall and are now atop District 32-5A with a 4-0 league record, while Lopez (6-1, 3-1) now sits tied for second with Mercedes, who also has one loss in district play.
After the Charger defense forced two three-and-outs and just one first down on Lopez’s first three possessions, BVM started its first three drives in Lopez territory.
Vasquez would break off runs of 33 and 37 yards to give the Chargers a 14-0 lead by the early second quarter.
Lopez finally caught a break, downing BVM’s offense inside their own one on a favorable bounce following a Jose Echavarria punt.
The Chargers ran into a wall and appeared to turn the ball over on downs after a Vasquez run for no gain on a fourth-and-four play from their own 7-yard line, but an offsides penalty on Lopez kept the drive going.
Five plays later Vasquez hit Elijah Masten for a 49 yard pass down to the Lopez 13, setting up Vasquez’s third rushing score, an 8-yard run to make it 21-0 with 1:12 to play in the half.
Lopez showed some life on the ensuing possession when Alex Ramirez Johnny Ibarra with a step on a defender and hit him in stride for a 76-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 14 with 25 seconds left before the half.
The Lobo luck continued as Vasquez muffed the second-half kickoff, setting Lopez up on the BVM 9-yard line, leading to 1-yard core by Angel Sandate to make it a one-score game.
The Chargers came right back on a seven-play 75-yard drive ending in Vasquez’s fourth touchdown of the night on a four-yard run to make it 28-14
Vasquez finished the night with 224 yards, four scores on 30 carries to lead the Chargers in what the senior looked at as a statement game.
“I saw a lot of heart and dedication (from the team),” Vasquez said. “We came out here with the mindset of setting a statement of who was the best in Brownsville. We did that and showed our true colors.”
Alexis Gomez put the finishing touches on the game with a 29-yard run to make it 35-14 with 9:23 to play. Gomez, who has stepped in to the starting running back role following a season-ending injury to Abel Martinez, carried the ball 19 times for 119 yards and a score.
“The offensive line stepped up and did all the work — they deserve most of the credit,” Gomez said. “The receivers (provided) amazing blocking and my quarterback read the plays really well. I am thankful for the great opportunity they gave me.”
The Lobos scored once more on a 15-yard pass from Ramirez to Ibarra after one of its possessions was extended when a BVM player contacted by football by mistake on a punt.
Ramirez passed for 140 yards and two scores, both to Ibarra, who caught four passes for 135 yards.
Lopez had just 212 yards of total offense, including 72 yards rushing on 32 carries.
Starkey hopes his team will find their offensive identity once again with big games against Mercedes and Edcouch-Elsa coming up in the next two weeks.
“We have to go back and figure out who we’re really going to be,” Starkey said. “We better figure that out quick, because we’re going to face a healthy, talented and well-coached Mercedes team at Mercedes. I’m optimistic that this team will regroup and we’ll go over there with a strong game plan and fired up to play for postseason hopes.”