TJ GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
PHARR — Defensive players scored all but six of Thursday’s points during PSJA North’s wrenching, knockout, drag-out 17-8 victory over a tough-as-nails Edinburg North squad at PSJA Stadium.
The key District 31-6A win improved the Raiders to 3-0 (6-0 overall) in district and kept them atop the standings; meanwhile, Edinburg North fell to 1-2 and 1-5 overall.
The game certainly wasn’t thought to turn out like that.
PSJA North entered the game an offensive roll — outscoring its opponents 175-31 — despite losing leading rusher Bo Adams to injury. Quarterback Darren Fuentes and running back Rene Ramirez picked up the slack last week and the Raiders continued to dominate. Edinburg North, however, had none of that.
The Cougars’ stingy defense allowed one touchdown all night, on the game’s first play when Raiders starting safety Oscar Cantu, lined up as a wideout, took a reverse down the left sideline 76 yards to paydirt. It gave PSJA North a quick 7-0 lead, but that’s as easy it as ever got for the Raiders. It was a struggle the rest of the way, but it played good enough to win, said PSJA North coach Marcus Kaufmann.
What’s more, the Raiders had to play much of the game without Ramirez and the district’s leading receiver Sammy Badillo because of injuries.
“We were just scrambling around on offense trying to figure stuff out,” Kaufmann said. “And thank goodness for that defense, holy mackerel. They played their butts off tonight.”
Indeed they did. In fact, Edinburg North’s only score came off a first-quarter pick six by Jacob Guerrero. The corner intercepted Raiders junior QB Randy Reyna, who was the signal-caller much of the game as regular QB Fuentes played running back much of the night.
The Raiders’ defense limited the Cougars’ to just 71 yards passing, 107 on the ground, and had a couple of sacks, blocked a punt and forced two fumbles — one of which was returned 54 yards for a touchdown by David Garza late in the third quarter. At the time, Edinburg North was nursing a 10-8 lead, but the senior defensive end’s strip of an Edinburg North ballcarrier for a TD gave PSJA North the commanding lead it needed to secure the win.
“We knew we were going to have to step it up more than the other games,” Garza said. “On that play (touchdown), my teammates picked up the running back and I saw the ball and I just said I was going to get it and run. And I did.”
Garza emerged from a big scrum just before officials were about to blow the play dead. The next thing anyone knew, he was racing toward the opposite end zone with the football.
Playing with a nine-point deficit, Edinburg North had to move fast to score and get back into the game. This time it was the Raiders’ defense that became a black hole by stiffening in the fourth quarter.
Edinburg North coach Rene Saenz said he was proud of his team’s defensive performance despite the loss.
“The kids played tough and they were ready for this district run,” Saenz said. “We came in with the belief that we were going to win this game and hey, the played like that. Our record does not really speak to what these kids have.”
Fuentes led PSJA North with 57 rushing yards on 18 carries. Cantu had 89 yards on two totes and converted cornerback Raudel Alvarez added 30 more on seven carries.