By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
BROWNSVILLE — The Donna High Redskins are following a simple game plan to make it to the state playoffs.
Just win.
“You know, that playoff situation (in District 16-5A Division I) is a mess,” said Donna High coach Ramiro Leal after the Redskins defeated Brownsville Porter 42-28 Saturday afternoon at Sams Memorial Stadium. “Next week will probably be the determining factor. A lot of things can happen. The way I was looking at it is you might end up having a four-team tie for second, third and fourth place with 6-3 records. It’s going to come down to the end of the regular season and maybe go to points (on a tiebreaker).
“We won’t find out (our playoff status) until next week (when we go against PSJA Memorial),” Leal added. “I just told our players, ‘Look, you’ve just got to win (to make it to the postseason). If you win out, it will settle itself.’ That’s the biggest thing we can do right now is just focus on winning at home next week against PSJA Memorial.
“You just never know what can happen on any given Friday night. The game is not played on paper, it’s played on the field, so we’ll see what happens.”
Saturday’s victory improved the Redskins to 6-3 on the season and 5-3 in district. Porter is 1-8 and 0-8.
Mission Veterans has clinched the district title with an 8-0 record. Brownsville Veterans Memorial and Brownsville Pace come next, both with 6-2 district records followed by Donna High and La Joya Palmview, each at 5-3.
Mission Veterans is definitely in the postseason, but after that it gets a little complicated with four teams in the running for three playoff spots, although it does appear Pace and Brownsville Veterans should go in.
All the Redskins could do Saturday was do their part by winning. That’s what they’ll try to do next week, too.
On Saturday, Donna High led 14-0 after one quarter and 28-7 at intermission. The Redskins took a 35-13 advantage into the final period.
It was a big scoring day for Redskins quarterback Ryan Espinoza, who rushed for 100 yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries along with passing for another TD.
Donna High running back Robert Guerra led the way on the ground for his team by rushing for 107 yards on 14 carries. Teammates Marcus Ysaguirre and Jose Guzman added 83 and 66 yards rushing, respectively. In all, Donna High had 379 yards rushing and 100 yards passing for a total offense of 479 yards.
Make no mistake, the ground game was the Redskins’ priority.
“We run the football, that’s Donna football,” Leal said. “That’s the way it is year after year after year. We’re very physical when it comes to our ground game and we try not to depend on just one guy. There’s a lot of pounding (involved) and we don’t want just one guy to take all the hits. That’s why we try to spread the ball carrying around so the players can be fresh, and we’re lucky to have (at least) three backs who can take the pounding and do a good job.”
A pair of 1-yard scoring keepers by Espinoza and a 34-yard TD scamper by Guzman put the Redskins out in front 21-0 early in the second period.
Porter QB Kevin Garcia, who also enjoyed a standout game, made it 21-7 on a 1-yard keeper at the 3:29 mark of the second quarter. Another Espinoza 1-yard keeper hiked the lead to 28-7 with 25 seconds left before halftime and gave a Redskins a three-TD edge at intermission.
The Cowboys cut it to 28-13 when Kevin Garcia threw a 72-yard scoring pass to Oscar Garcia with 5:05 showing in the third quarter. Espinoza responded by going up the middle 47 yards to the end zone with 20 seconds left in the third period to boost the lead to 35-13.
It became 35-21 with 6:19 showing on the scoreboard in the fourth period when Oscar Garcia and Kevin Garcia hooked up on another TD pass play covering 30 yards. They connected again on a pass for the two-point conversion.
Marcus Ysaguirre caught a 3-yard TD pass from Espinoza with 1:38 remaining to increase the score to 42-21.
On the last play of the game, Kevin Garcia unloaded a “Hail Mary” pass into the end zone. Porter receiver Manuel Sandoval wrestled the ball away from a Donna High defender, who initially appeared to make an interception. An official was there and stood over the players on the turf fighting for the ball in the end zone before raising his arms to signal a TD with time expired, accounting for the 42-28 final score. The “Hail Mary” play covered 31 yards.
“I think the last play of the game indicates the kind of heart our guys have and how they’ve fought all year,” Porter coach Carlos Uresti said. “They play to the last second no matter what. My hat’s off to Donna, they did a great job, but our kids have been playing hard all season.”