The Texas high school football season is three weeks in, and strong quarterback play has started to emerge from Districts 15-5A DII and 16-5A DII.

Brownsville Lopez senior Lupe Ramirez, a three-year starter, is no stranger to lighting it up through the air. The Lobos’ signal-caller has completed 59 of his 77 passes and ranks third in the Rio Grande Valley with 706 passing yards and nine touchdowns through three games.

Sharyland High junior Calvin Harris has shown the ability to impact the game with his arm, legs and hands after going for a hat trick with a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown during the Rattlers’ most recent game against Mission High. Harris is up to 661 passing yards, which ranks fourth in the RGV, 197 rushing yards and nine total touchdowns.

Sharyland Pioneer’s passing attack continues to take shape this season, and the Diamondbacks’ Week 3 31-14 win over Edinburg North showcased it. Senior quarterback William Goodloe, who played receiver last season, had his best performance of the early season with 221 passing yards, 50 rushing yards and four total touchdowns against the Cougars.

Mission Veterans junior Cameron Sarinana has flashed potential this season and sits seventh in the Valley with 555 passing yards and four touchdown tosses. He finished his first career start with 290 yards and three touchdowns against crosstown rival Mission High before running into two tough defenses in Edcouch-Elsa and PSJA High. The experience will prove valuable once district play rolls around.

Roma also has a new gunslinger in town with quarterback Eli Garza taking over after transferring from McAllen Rowe before the season started. He completed 2-of-5 passes in his debut with the Gladiators last week, a 17-6 win over Grulla, for 76 yards and a touchdown, and he also ran for 27 yards.

THUNDER D
Edcouch-Elsa’s “Thunder Defense” had high expectations coming into the 2024 campaign, returning nearly all of its starters and setting out to allow just two touchdowns all season.

The Yellow Jackets have allowed more than two touchdowns this year, but they’ve still proven to be among the RGV’s top units this year.
Through three games Edcouch-Elsa has allowed 543 total yards and 33 points, averaging just 181.0 yards and 11 points per game against.

More impressively, the Yellow Jackets have 15 takeaways and three defensive touchdowns on the year, tallying 10 interceptions, five fumble recoveries, two pick-sixes and one fumble return TD.

A pair of non-district games remain for Edcouch-Elsa, beginning with Edinburg High this Friday, followed by a contest against Port Isabel the following week.

NEXT UP
A couple of weeks remain before the start of district play for the Valley’s 5A-DII districts, but that doesn’t mean exciting matchups aren’t on deck.

PSJA Southwest (1-2) and Sharyland High (1-2) kick off Week 4 action at 7 p.m. today in a non-district battle between playoff hopefuls. Both teams are looking for a return to the postseason this year, with the matchup also presenting a possible bi-district matchup this season.

Sharyland Pioneer looks to stay hot at home against a tough Brownsville Hanna team. The Diamondbacks are coming off back-to-back wins after dropping their season opener, while the Eagles are in search of their first win of the year. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Richard Thompson Stadium in Mission.

Other notable matchups include Brownsville Lopez (2-1) vs. Grulla (1-2) at 7 p.m. today at Joe Sanchez Stadium in Rio Grande City, Mission Veterans (0-3) at Laredo Johnson (1-2) at 7 p.m. today and more.

For a full look at this week’s scheduled games, visit RGVSports.com.

District 15-5A DI was the first to kick off district play in the Rio Grande Valley last week, and 16-5A DI is set to join the mix as both leagues deliver primetime matchups in Week 4.

15-5A DI
WESLACO EAST AT PSJA MEMORIAL

The nine-team District 15-5A DI features seven playoff qualifiers from a season ago, which turns this year’s race for a top-four spot into a marathon.

The seventh-ranked Weslaco East Wildcats (3-0, 1-0) are off to a hot start and coming off a dominant 26-0 win over Donna High in Week 3. The Wildcats limited Donna to just 14 yards of total offense and East’s tandem of runners — senior Margarito Pompa and freshman Malachi Rodriguez — ran wild in the win.

Pompa leads the Wildcats with 389 rushing yards, 122 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 50 touches this season. The freshman athlete, Rodriguez, has lined up at quarterback and in the backfield and posted 342 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 55 carries.

Linebacker Kyle Garcia and safety Greg Granados lead the East defense with 32 and 26 tackles, respectively. They’ll be tasked with matching up against a PSJA Memorial team that likes to pound the rock itself.

The Wolverines (1-1, 0-0) are coming off a bye week and will have had two weeks to prepare for their meeting with the Wildcats. Their most recent action was a 36-28 win on the road against McAllen High on Sept. 5 as running back Emi Colunga erupted for 189 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Senior quarterback Ryan Reyna added 93 yards on the ground with one rushing touchdown, and senior receiver Robert Moralez chipped in with 70 total yards and a score on four touches.

Defensively, senior linebacker Diego Villegas leads the Wolverines in stops with 20 tackles in two games, and senior defensive back Exzayveon Banks is a threat in the secondary with 13 tackles, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

Kickoff between the Wildcats and Wolverines is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at PSJA Stadium in Pharr.

16-5A DI
EDINBURG VELA AT MISSION HIGH

District 16-5A DI competition kicks off this week and begins with a matchup of two teams inside the RGVSports.com 5A/6A Top 10 rankings featuring No. 2 Edinburg Vela visiting No. 8 Mission High.

The SaberCats (3-0, 0-0) proved they’re still one of the big dogs on the block by taking down last week’s No. 2 team, Harlingen High, 34-16 at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen in the RGVSports.com Game of the Week.

Edinburg Vela’s offense continues to improve each week, and now the SaberCats are ripping off chunk plays in bunches. It starts up front with a strong offensive line in the trenches that opens up room for running back Jonathan Flores. The senior back ranks sixth in the RGV in rushing yardage with 568 yards and seven touchdowns on 68 carries. That creates opportunities for senior quarterback Geoffrey LeFevre (648 passing yards, four touchdowns) to hit playmakers on the outside in senior June Garza Jr. (245 yards, three touchdowns) and junior Jay’r Guevara (174 yards).

The SaberCats’ defense also flexed its muscle in the win over Harlingen by holding its third straight opponent to less than 17 points. Safeties Luis Garcia and Derek Rodriguez are solid on the back end, and the Vela front seven has played tough to slow opposing rushing attacks.

Mission will be standing on the opposite sideline on its home field of Tom Landry Stadium, looking to pull off an upset.

The Eagles (2-1, 0-0) have won tight games against an intra-city rivals and dropped a close one against Weslaco East by a field goal. Still, Mission High has the pieces to push fellow 16-5A DI teams Vela and McAllen Memorial for a district title.

The Eagles have displayed a balanced attack this season with experience at the quarterback position in senior third-year starter Diego Salinas and weapons in the backfield and on the perimeter in Mission’s spread attack.

Salinas ranks second in the RGV in passing yards with 740 and seven touchdowns through three weeks. Senior running back Thomas Aparicio has been one of the area’s best with 410 rushing yards, and pass-catchers Yandel Barrera, Christopher Kirk and Shelby Sital can hit the big play at any moment.

Mission’s defense will be tested against Edinburg Vela’s ground game, but the Eagles have held two spread offenses to 22 points or less in their wins against Mission Veterans and Sharyland High with junior linebackers Jonathan Kader and Jose Sanchez leading the charge.

The SaberCats and Eagles are slated for a 7:30 p.m kickoff Friday at Tom Landry Stadium in Mission.

BROWNSVILLE — On any given game night, Brownsville St. Joseph’s active roster features about 25 players, give or take a few depending on injury.

The Bloodhounds have played up in numbers each week this season yet stand with a 3-0 overall record, the program’s best start since 2016.

St. Joseph, which competes in TAPPS Division II District 3, opened the year with a 34-6 victory at home against Raymondville. One week later, the Bloodhounds took down crosstown rival Brownsville Veterans 41-21 on the road in an upset of the reigning Region IV-5A DI champion Chargers, who are now competing at the Class 6A level.

After going toe-to-toe with the Valley’s best and winning a dogfight, the Bloodhounds played host to Class 5A Corpus Christi Carroll last Friday at Canales Field in Brownsville and pulled off a thrilling 29-28 victory to keep their perfect record intact approaching the midway point of the regular season.

Carroll had nearly 80 players dressed for their game against St. Joseph to just 23 for the Bloodhounds.

“We have a quote that’s in our locker room and they’ve seen it since they were little kids. The mantra of Bloodhound football is, ‘Eleven brothers can’t be beat.’ For me, they can dress out as many as they want, they gotta put 11 out there, and if our 11 are united and they don’t point fingers and they believe in each other, I’ll put my 11 against anybody’s 11 and the rest will take care of itself,” St. Joseph’s 10th-year head coach Tino Villarreal said. “I think these guys put in so much hard work in the offseason. They know we’re ironman football, they know we gotta be the best conditioned team, so all of these things play into the culture of what it means to be a St. Joe Bloodhound.”

Senior athlete Claudio Torres has been on a tear through three games with 678 total yards and nine touchdowns. He scored the game-winning touchdown and two-point conversion against Carroll with :35 seconds remaining to help seal the victory.

Junior quarterback Gavin Cisneros hit some big-time throws during the Bloodhounds’ comeback victory over Carroll, and senior offensive/defensive lineman Diego De La Cruz, a University of Texas at El Paso commit, is a wrecking ball in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

“These guys are resilient. They were put in real difficult situations, but they were able to overcome that and get the job done, and that’s a good sign for us in non-district play,” Villarreal said. “You want to be challenged, you want to be put in tough situations, you want to be down at halftime, you want to be down in the third quarter, you want to be down with two minutes left to see how you respond, and they responded to the challenge very well. They kept their poise, they kept their cool and they never stopped believing that the game was in our reach.”

Villarreal sees similarities between this year’s Bloodhounds and the 2016 squad that started the season 3-0. That St. Joseph team was quarterbacked by Kai Money, who went on to play receiver for the Texas Longhorns.

“Their similarities are that they’re super united. They’re like a family, and that allows them to be loose in practice but know they gotta get the job done,” Villarreal said. “They’re able to be relaxed and laugh and joke and play music and dance in practice, and it’s not something old-school for us that we get bothered by because they’re laser-focused on their job. They want to win.”

Next for the Bloodhounds is a business trip against Austin Regents (2-1) at 6 p.m. Friday in Austin. Win or lose, Villarreal feels Brownsville St. Joseph has the potential to piece together a deep playoff run.

“I think great teams are consistent — they don’t have roller-coaster rides. They come in with the same objective every week, they play at a high level every week, know their assignment every week, regardless of who the opponent is, regardless of the weather, or if we’re traveling,” Villarreal said. “If we’re able to just play consistent ball and every week improve on one little detail, I think that that’s going to be the ticket for us to make a deep run in the playoffs.”

PLAYMAKERS
Week 3 delivered several standout performances across the RGV, including some at the sub-5A level.

Port Isabel running back Luis Ramos continued his offensive tear to start the season, racking up more than 250 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns during a 48-0 rout of Valley View.

Ramos took the game’s opening kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown to set the tone for the Tarpons and added a 75-yard touchdown run and a 61-yard touchdown reception. The junior running back, who only played one half, finished the game with six carries for 133 yards and a touchdown, and added one reception for 61 yards and a score and a kick return touchdown.

Other notable performances included Mario Lopez’s 174-rushing-yard, three-touchdown outing for Rio Hondo against Hidalgo, and Santa Maria quarterback/defensive back Miguel “PJ” Alaniz throwing for 229 yards and three touchdowns, adding five carries for 40 yards and a score and a pick-six.

For full stat leaders for all the RGV’s teams, visit RGVSports.com.

HEATING UP
RGV players weren’t the only thing on fire last week, with several sub-5A Rio Grande Valley teams gaining steam.

Lyford picked up its second straight win after dropping its season opener to Port Isabel, cruising past Brownsville Porter 47-21. The Bulldogs will look to continue rolling as district play begins Friday, when they take on Bishop (0-3) at 7 p.m. at Bulldog Stadium.

Meanwhile, the La Feria Lions improved to 2-1 after their second straight win of the year, taking down Hidalgo 27-13 at home last week. Next up for the Lions is a tilt against Valley View (0-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at Lion Stadium in La Feria.

Santa Rosa continued its hot streak to start the season, moving to 3-0 with a convincing 17-6 win over La Villa. The Warriors now have outscored their first three opponents 113-18. They’ll take on Brownsville Porter (0-3) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.

For full results and standings from across the Valley, visit RGVSports.com.

Brownsville Pace running back Adrian Sauceda has gotten off to a sensational start to the 2024 Texas high school football season, and his Week 3 performance has earned him RGVSports.com Football Player of the Week honors.

Sauceda finished with 302 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns in a 44-42 Vikings win over La Joya High last Friday in La Joya.

The senior turned 17 carries into 230 yards and four rushing touchdowns, and he also caught three passes for 72 yards. The Vikings improved to 3-0 on the year with their Week 3 victory.

Sauceda is now up to 697 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 78 carries with six receptions for 85 yards. He leads all Rio Grande Valley running backs in total yardage this season.

Brownsville Pace is back in action at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s Veterans Stadium.

MISSION — Friday night’s non-district matchup featuring Mission High against Sharyland High started off as a shootout with a combined 44 first-half points scored between the two.

In the third and fourth quarters, however, the Eagles were the team with all the firepower on their side as Mission prevailed 36-22 over the Rattlers on Friday at Richard Thompson Stadium in Mission to close out non-district play.

“We had a talk with them at halftime and they responded well and I’m proud of them for that,” Mission head coach Danny Longoria said. “The fact that we put two great quarters of play together defensively and offensively, we cleaned up a lot of things we did incorrectly, and I’m proud of them. They came out swinging.”

Five different Eagles hit pay dirt in the win while the Mission defense pitched a second half shutout after entering the locker room tied at 22.

“I’m just super proud of our team. It was a close game at halftime, but our coaches told us let’s keep going and that’s what we did and we came out victorious,” Mission quarterback Diego Salinas said. “It feels good having those weapons, the speed that we have and the play-calling, too.”

The Rattlers dug themselves out of an early hole to start the shootout. Sharyland defensive back Jose Vega ended Mission’s opening drive with a red zone interception and was tackled at the 1-yard line.

The next snap, Sharyland’s first offensive play of the evening, was a handoff in the end zone and Mission defensive lineman Elian Garcia was quick to pounce with a tackle for loss to cause a safety.

The Eagles kept the pressure on with a 41-yard touchdown pass from Salinas to receiver Christopher Kirk on the next possession for a 9-0 Mission lead.

The Rattlers shook off the slow start and scored back-to-back touchdowns on an 8-yard quarterback keeper by Calvin Harris and an 8-yard pass in the right flat to Francisco Gomez to race ahead 14-9.

Mission answered right back with the next two scores to make it a 22-14 game as running backs Richard Acevedo and Thomas Aparicio found the end zone on runs from 2 and 37-yards out, respectively.

The Rattlers responded with a little trickery on a double pass throwback as Harris took the snap in shotgun, lateralled the ball to Santiago Longoria to his right who threw it back to Harris. The Sharyland quarterback caught the ball and out-ran everybody down the left sideline for six. Longoria converted the two-point conversion on a shovel pass from Harris to tie things up just before the half.

The Eagles’ offense soared with two big plays in the second half and used a heavy dose of Aparicio to put the game away. Salinas threw deep down the left sideline to receiver Santiago Gonzalez, who caught the pass and broke two tackles before running into the end zone. The Eagles then forced a punt and used a jet sweep to Shelby Sital for a 67-yard touchdown run for a 36-22 advantage.

“Next week, going into district with two tough teams, teams are going to see on film that every guy is a weapon. Not just me, not just Shelby, not just Yandel, everybody is a weapon on offense,” Aparicio said.

Mission added a pair of red zone stops in the second half to keep the contest a two-score game with a turnover on downs and a fumble forced by Roel Martinez and recovered by Jonathan Kader.

“It helps to be able to distribute the ball to the great kids we have. I just think coming into district play next week against a very tough opponent, this was a must-win for us and we responded well, I believe,” Longoria said. “I think offensively, we played well. Defensively, we created turnovers when we needed them the most and I think that was a great job by our defense because Sharyland is a tough team. Coach (Craig) Krell does a great job and has a great team and best of luck to them.”

The Eagles (2-1) move on to District 16-5A DI play next week and open against the Edinburg Vela SaberCats (3-0) at 7 p.m. Friday at Tom Landry Stadium in Mission. The Rattlers (1-2) will look to bounce back with another non-district test against PSJA Southwest (0-3) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Richard Thompson Stadium in Mission.