KEVIN NARRO | Valley Morning Star
SAN BENITO — Games are won and lost in the trenches and for San Benito, their up tempo offense has lit up the scoreboard this season. What makes the offense go has been the strong play from their offenive line.
San Benito’s starting five make up of four seniors and one junior. Andres Garcia plays center, Chris Vargas plays right tackle, Hector De Jesus plays right guard, Hector Garza Jr. plays left tackle and Aaron Saldana plays left guard.
The chemistry between the staring five dates back to their time at the junior high level and have all moved up the ranks has one unit.
Garcia has played two years on the varsity and directs the offensive line with check downs and is one of the vocal leaders along the offensive line.
“I stared playing right guard then I moved to center my junior year,” Garcia said. “It was a tough transition, I had to learn how to snap the ball. I had to practice hard and kept at it, and I eventually got used to it. It’s fun to be a part of a up tempo offense, it can be challenging sometimes because we have to move fast, we’re big boys but we make sure to keep up the tempo with the offense.”
Fellow senior and right guard De Jesus also made a position change. As a sophomore De Jesus played left guard and made the switch to right guard his junior season.
“It wasn’t a hard move, it is the same position,” De Jesus said. “I’m just on the other side of the ball and it’s the same rules as the left side. When I found out I was moving positions I didn’t ask questions I was ready to move and help my team in any way.”
De Jesus and company have paved the way for senior running back Ty-rone Harper who has rushed for 1,508 yards and 23 touchdowns, while quarterback Erick Retta has stayed up right all season thanks to his big men up front.
“It means a lot to us of-fensive linemen to see our running back and quarter-back shine. We put in a lot of work over the offseason. As a unit we spend a lot of time together, we work out together so our chemistry is strong and it transfers over to the field.” De Jesus said.
San Benito will play San Antonio O’Connor Friday at 7:30 in the class 6A Regional Quarterfinal at Corpus Christi’s Bucca-neer Stadium.