By ARMANDO GARZA
Special to the Star
PHARR— Though the last thing they’ll do is boast about anything concerning a scrimmage, one can’t help but notice that the early returns on the San Benito Greyhounds are certainly intriguing.
Using an attacking defense and an offense that got hot, the ‘Hounds raced out and never looked back as they took down PSJA North 30-7 in their scrimmage on Friday morning at PSJA Stadium.
The teams elected to play a “live” format scrimmage with four 12-minute quarters. Special teams were dead and coaches were in game mode on the sidelines.
“It’s a scrimmage and we’ve got a lot of work to do to be where we want to be,” San Benito head coach Dan Gomez said. “We’ve gotta do our homework, keep our nose down to the ground and keep moving forward. But the boys worked together well. We have some mistakes we’ve got to correct so we’re gonna go get back to work.
But Coach (Jorge) Pena is doing a helluva job over there at PSJA North. We saw a big difference from the team we saw on film from last year.”
The game began with solid defense and four punts, two apiece for each squad. However, a big-play theme was soon to begin for the “War Dog” Greyhounds.
Buoyed by a fumble recovery by its defense, San Benito took over and quarterback Cristian Sierra connected with Victor Gaitan on a 22-yard hookup down to the Raider 26-yard line. On the very next snap, the elusive Gabriel Vasquez capped the drive on a nice touchdown run to put the ‘Hounds up 7-0 during the first period.
Sierra, in his first season as signal-caller, was smooth and efficient running coordinator Gilbert Leal’s offense. Once the train got moving, it was hard to stop.
That was evidenced in the second, when Sierra connected with Gaitan again, this time on a 13-yard strike as the lead pushed to 14-0. Later, an interception by Juan Gonzalez gave the ‘Hounds the ball back and they responded with a nice drive keyed by two big plays by Omar Garcia (26-yard run) and Armando Medrano (25-yard run). Alejandro Lugo capped it with 27-yard field goal to extend the lead and it remained that way going into halftime.
The train was still movin’ after the break.
The ‘Hounds got another long score on a superb jaunt by Edward Alvarez, who started up the middle and cut to the left side of the field and outran the Raiders to paydirt, making it 24-0 San Benito at that point.
The San Benito defense was aggressive all morning and kept the Raiders in check for the majority. Juan Salas picked off a pass as they continued to stymie a young North team in its first season in a spread offense for new coach Pena. The Raiders got on the board late when QB George Olivarez, who ran well in the second half, scored on a 31-yard scamper to avert the shutout.
“We had some questions answered today,” Pena said. “The only way to find out who’s who and who’s what is when you put the pads on. I have a pretty good idea now. There’s a lot of newness to these guys and we’re going to be fine.”
However, the ‘Hounds got the last word in as reserve quarterback J.R. Gaitan broke free for a TD from 34 yards out to slam the door shut on the Raiders and the scrimmage altogether.
The ‘Hounds will continue to work toward the opener at home next Friday against Edinburg High while PSJA North takes on rival PSJA High also in Week One.