FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
RAYMONDVILLE — Coming into the season there’s one lingering question in the back of every Raymondville Bearkat fan’s mind. Who was going to replace quarterback Daniel Gutierrez? Especially after last season’s impressive record that saw the team win nine games, while losing only twice.
Enter, senior Jacob Posas. Last season’s defensive standout with more than 145 combined tackles (74 solo), three sacks and one interception. Now, he will be this year’s signal caller.
“Last season he was our linebacker/secondary guy who made the second team all-state at that position,” said Raymondville head coach Frank Cantu. “But he was also our backup quarterback and is use to that position but he just didn’t get the reps because the guy we had in there was pretty good himself.”
Defensively, the Bearkats are hoping to replicate last year’s stingy defense. With Posas under center, and two key defensive ends now gone due to graduation, Cantu is hoping others will step up and take over. Fortunately for Cantu, the team returns other key defensive weapons namely Noe Zambrano, Rudy Tijerina and Deion Castillo.
“We look well but we’re just trying to iron out a few wrinkles to get even better,” said Cantu. “We lost some key defensive ends and of course with Jacob not in there that is going to be felt on the defensive side. But as the season goes on we are going to put him in there since he’s confident and knows the defense really well.
“But we have some people ready to step in and take over.”
One person ready to step in and leave his mark on defense is Harlingen South transfer Cole Cooley. Cooley comes in with more than 150 tackles for the Hawks last year where he was named to District 32-6A’s Honorable Mention list.
“Cooley will be a big help at linebacker,” said Cantu. “We lost Fred Rodriguez at linebacker and I think Cooley is a guy who is going to fit in really really nicely. He is a good football player who is going to play middle linebacker for us and tight end so we’re really excited to have him on the team as well.”
Offensively (aside from Posas taking over as QB) the team returns two dangerous versatile weapons in Marcus Capetillo and Xavier Ledesma. Last season Capetillo rushed for 853 yards and seven touchdowns, while Ledesma hauled in 17 catches for 244 yards and three touchdowns.
SCRIMMAGE GAME
The Bearkats will get their first opportunity to see both the offense and defense against an opposing team this Friday in a scrimmage game against La Joya. The varsity game is slated to take place at Burnett Stadium at 7 p.m.
“I want to see us execute offensively because I know La Joya is expecting to have a really good defense this year,” said Cantu. “I want to see how our offense looks against that defense. I’m also excited to see how we are going to fill in some of those holes that we lost on defense as well.
“But at the same time we are going to give everybody a look and give our kids the opportunity to get in there and show what they have.”