By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Edinburg Vela SaberCats did nothing to take away from their No. 2 ranking in the Rio Grande Valley on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Sams Memorial Stadium as they rolled past the Pace Vikings 72-27 in the season opener for both teams.
Vela, coming off a 10-2 season and ranked No. 2 behind McAllen Memorial, scored on its first seven possessions and also recorded a safety en route to leading 37-0 after one quarter and 51-13 at halftime.
Highlighting the win for the SaberCats were quarterback Fabian Pedraza and running back Robert Guerra. Each accounted for three touchdowns.
Playing only the first half and rushing 11 times for 133 yards, Guerra ran for TDs on plays coving 26, 5 and 18 yards. Pedraza threw three scoring passes, completing seven of 10 passes for 113 yards without an interception. He threw TD passes of 20 and 28 yards to Elijah Reyna and 14 yards to Michael Arguelles.
“I felt we played well in all three phases of the game,” Vela coach Michael Salinas said. “We talked about having a 1-0 mentality, and our players came out and started fast. They focused on each play, each drive and each series. Fortunately for us, we accomplished what we wanted to do.
“I don’t know if anybody goes out and expects to score 70 points,” Salinas added. “We were just hoping to be 1-0 by the end of this game however we could accomplish it. We’re excited, but there are still some things we have to build on. We just have to continue to stay humble and stay focused on the task at hand, and that’s winning each week.”
Six plays into the game, Johnny Davila’s 6-yard run made it 7-0 for the SaberCats after the first of 10 extra points by Edgar Tejada with 9:35 showing in the opening period. Before the quarter ended, Guerra had scored on a 26-yard run, Reyna had caught his TD passes of 20 and 28 yards from Pedraza and Arguelles made his scoring reception of 14 yards.
The Vikings, coming off a 3-7 season, had a punt hiked low, and it bounced out of the back of the end zone to give the SaberCats a safety midway through the first quarter.
The teams traded a pair of scores during the second period as Guerra tallied on runs of 5 and 18 yards, while Pace QB Luis Rodriguez made it to the end zone on two 3-yard runs.
During the third quarter, Victor Vilano caught a 34-yard scoring pass from Rodriguez to make it 51-20 before Arguelles ran 3 yards into the end zone to boost the score to 58-20.
It became 72-20 during the fourth quarter thanks to two more Vela scores. Davila and Samuel Valenzuela broke loose for scoring runs of 28 and 65 yards, respectively, before Rodriguez added his third rushing TD for Pace on a 1-yard keeper up the middle with 1.6 seconds left.
Valenzuela finished with 98 yards on the ground for Vela, and Rodriguez rushed for 99 yards on 27 carries for Pace.
The SaberCats had a total offense of 539 yards (357 rushing and 182 passing), and Pace finished with 269 yards (179 rushing and 90 passing).
Vela next plays at home against Harlingen South on Friday. Pace returns to Sams next Saturday to play host to Sharyland Pioneer.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.