BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | THE MONITOR
Grulla faced a grueling non-district schedule that included matchups against two Class 6A teams.
Through six games, the Gators went 3-3 but remained healthy and had an open week last week. Now, they are set to open District 16-4A Division I action against Zapata at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Hawk Stadium in Zapata.
“They are a tough opponent,” Grulla coach Abel Gonzalez III said. “We looked at some stuff from last year. We broke down the film. All our focus is on Zapata. We are ready to get district rolling.”
Gonzalez took the bye week as a time to review the season so far.
“All through non-district play, you try a couple different things,” Gonzalez said. “You want to find out what you do really well, and then tweak that. You make some personnel changes. Against Rowe, we had (senior) Miguel Flores in the backfield. We liked the way it looked. We might do some more of that moving forward.”
Flores carried the ball 11 times for 24 yards, but he showed flashes of what he could do with increased carries.
“We want to give him some more touches,” Gonzalez said. “When he is out there at receiver, it kind of limits the way we can get him the ball. When we put him in the backfield next to (junior quarterback) Dillen (Salinas), it adds a different dimension to our offense. He’s a big football player for us. He’s a big physical kid. He’s not going to go down with one hit.”
With adjustments made, Grulla is ready to take the district by storm.
“This bye week, it came at a right time for us right after six straight games,” Gonzalez said. “Every single ball game that we lost, we were right in there. We feel good with where we are at right now. … Now we can get ourselves ready for this district run that we want to make.”