It wasn’t pretty at times, but the Raymondville Bearkats managed to stop the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds in their tracks to earn a 30-14 victory in Friday night’s non-district matchup.
“We feel that we did enough to win it, but every time we’ve come here, it’s been a battle; it’s been a great game,” Raymondville coach Frank Cantu said. “There’s no quit in these guys. We did enough to come out (on top).
“We had some great defensive stances here at the end, close to the end zone, that really made a big difference. They went to their big guy, (Pablo Zolezzi); he had a great game, huge catches. At the end of the day, we were fortunate enough to come out with a victory.”
The game kicked off with each team trading turnovers at least once until the Bearkats hit paydirt on a 13-yard pass from quarterback Jacob Posas to ZaRaivion Armendarez.
During the point-after attempt, the Bloodhounds’ Seon Teo Ong blocked Raymondville’s kick and ran the ball back to add two points on a safety for St. Joseph.
The Bloodhounds had an unsuccessful drive after that, mustering 2 yards.
Raymondville, however, had a successful 91-yard drive that culminated with another pass from Posas to Armendarez, this time for 89 yards.
The Bearkats scored one more time before halftime on a 1-yard run by Marcus Capetillo.
Capetillo finished the game with 123 rushing yards in 16 carries.
“It was phenomenal coming out here and getting the (win) with the team,” he said. “Most important thing, though, we all executed greatly and it showed.”
The senior running back said the team takes each game one week at a time.
“Next week we have Kingsville,” Capetillo said. “It’s our homecoming (game), so we’re going to go out and execute again like we did tonight and hopefully come out with the (win).”
During the second half, each team traded two touchdowns each.
After finding the end zone on a 79-yard reception from Tomas Edge to Zolezzi, St. Joseph recovered an onside kick to put the home team at the 50-yard line with 6:58 left in the game.
In fact, it was Zolezzi who managed to scoop up the onside kick for the Bloodhounds.
The St. Joseph captain said despite the loss, he believes the team has improved a lot since the start of the season.
“I think the difference from this team to any other team that we’ve ever had is that we never give up,” he said. “We always stay strong as a team.”
St. Joseph coach Tino Villarreal praised Zolezzi’s performance Friday night and said the Bloodhounds will work on being able to get him the ball more often.
“Pablo is a special player, and we have to find creative ways to get him the football,” Villarreal said. “Once he has the ball in his hands he does what we saw him do today, and we just have to figure out a way to give him the ball more often.”
Zolezzi garnered 124 passing yards and 2 rushing. He also scored the two touchdowns for the Bloodhounds.
Villarreal said he is proud the team never gave up and fought to the end.
“I couldn’t be any prouder as a coach the way our boys fought; they never gave up and they gave us all the effort that we asked,” he said.
After the Bloodhounds recovered their own onside kick, both teams increased their physicality and aggressiveness during the last moments of the game.
The Raymondville coach said the Bearkats are going to work on improving their special teams after Friday night’s performance.
“We want to improve every week,” Cantu said. “We feel we got beat with special teams, so that’s something we’re going to work on. That and to continue to get the four quarters in.
“Continue to play tough defensively, make tackles and, at the end of the day, come away with not so many penalties and that kind of stuff. It got sloppy, kind of got away from us there, but we’re fortunate to come out with a W.”
Ultimately, it was Raymondville’s defense that proved to be too much for St. Joseph’s last-minute flurry. The loss was tough for the Bloodhounds, especially during their home opener, but Villarreal said this will not slow them down.
“We told the kids right now that last year we started 1-3 and nobody remembers that,” he said. “They remember that we won our first district championship in 37 years, so it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We had a real tough stretch. We had three road games to start the season against very good teams.
“Hats off to Raymondville; they’re a phenomenal team and I thought we gave them everything we had. We had three trips to the red zone where we came up empty handed. That could’ve been the difference tonight.”