By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial wanted to be more balanced on offense this season.
But if it isn’t broke, maybe they shouldn’t fix it.
The Chargers, led by Marcus Castillo, used a dominant run game to run past the Redskins’ defense in a 49-42 victory over Donna High in a Week 1 non-district game Thursday at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Castillo finished with 278 yards on the ground and scored four touchdowns, including the game-winner with less than one minute to play. The senior quarterback scored on runs of 14, 82, 3 and 3 yards to lead Brownsville Veterans, which rushed for 422 yards and finished with 540 yards of total offense.
The senior quarterback also completed 9 of 12 passes for 118 yards and one touchdown.
“Marcus is a senior. He’s a very mature football player who has been on varsity since he was a sophomore taking all these snaps,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “I think what made him get to this point, being as good as he is, is the competition with Gustavo Vasquez, and that competition (during early practices) really elevated his game.”
Brownsville Veterans got on the board first midway through the first quarter. Castillo hit senior receiver Jeremiah Meyers on an 11-yard pass in the end zone to give the Chargers a 7-0 lead.
Donna High answered on its next drive. Senior quarterback Edward Dougherty scored on a 6-yard run to even the game at 7.
Castillo did a lot of the damage during the second quarter. He scored on a 14-yard run at the beginning of the quarter and later broke loose from the Donna High defense and outran everyone for an 82-yard score to put the Chargers up 21-7 by halftime.
“We just had the first-game jitters. We were doing some things that we normally don’t do,” Donna High coach Ramiro Leal said. “We just said, ‘Hey, let’s play, let’s not worry about what they’re doing, let’s worry about what we’re doing.’ That was the biggest thing.”
But Donna High didn’t make it easy. Dougherty scored on a 62-yard run and Amonte Bowen scored from 21 yards out on the next drive to pull with a touchdown, 28-21. Carlos Garza scored on touchdown runs of 75 yards and 1 yard during the third quarter to give the Chargers a 35-21 cushion. The Redskins’ duo of Dougherty and Bowen scored on back-to-back drives again, and Donna High tied the game at 35 early in the fourth quarter.
“We came back (in the second half), offensively we just ran the ball,” Leal said of the adjustments in the second half. “Defensively, we wanted to get a couple stops and let the offense catch up and then take it from there.”
Later in the fourth, Castillo put the Chargers ahead on a 3-yard touchdown run, but Dougherty answered with a 90-yard run to tie the game at 42.
Castillo once again orchestrated an impressive drive and scored on another 3-yard run with less than one minute left to take the lead for good.
Donna High finished with 443 yards rushing. Dougherty finished with 243 yards and four touchdowns, and Bowen had 200 yards and two scores.
Leal was proud of his team’s effort.
“Just put us in position during the fourth quarter to have a chance to win the game, and we did,” he said. “That’s all we can ask of our kids. The biggest thing I emphasized was not to quit … and they fought all the way until the very end.”
The Chargers’ coach was pleased with the win but knew his team could have played better at times.
“It’s always good to get the first win of the season,” Cantu said. “We get a W, but we’ll be able to learn a lot from it, so I’m happy about that.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.