By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
St. Joseph Academy kicker Jose Kauachi celebrated a birthday Saturday, but he was the one handing out gifts.
The senior hit a 22-yard field goal with 1:30 left to play that turned out to be the game winner in the Bloodhounds’ 38-35 comeback victory over Fort Worth Nolan Catholic in a TAPPS Division I playoff game Saturday at Canales Field in Brownsville.
After taking the late lead, the Bloodhounds’ defense came up with an interception from David Rodriguez on the Vikings’ final drive to subdue the opposition and seal the playoff victory for St. Joseph.
“I just wanted to do my job,” Kauachi said of his game-winning boot. “The coaches always say if we all do our jobs, we’ll come out victorious. That’s what I was thinking. It’s great (to get the win), I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
After the game, the crowd serenaded Kauachi with “Happy Birthday” for his role in helping St. Joseph (9-2) move to the next round of the playoffs. The Bloodhounds’ next opponent was unknown by Herald press time.
Fort Worth Nolan finished the season 3-8.
The Vikings led 22-7 at halftime, but momentum began shifting in favor of St. Joseph after the Bloodhounds defense halted Nolan on its final three offensive series of the first half.
Nolan went scoreless in the second quarter, St. Joseph outscored the visitors 31-13 after the break.
“I think those three stops in a row let the kids finally believe what we’ve been preaching all week: We can play with anyone as long as we play our game,” St. Joseph coach Tino Villarreal said. “It takes all three phases to beat a team like that, we know that, especially in the playoffs.”
St. Joseph quarterback Kai Money totaled 397 yards of offense. He ran for 147 yards and a pair of touchdowns and threw for 250 yards and another touchdown. Running back Mario Garcia added 55 rushing yards two more touchdowns as the Bloodhounds’ offense amassed 490 yards.
Facing the halftime deficit, St. Joseph went back to its ground game in the second half. After stopping Nolan on downs to opening the third quarter, Money had a 28-yard scamper for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 22-14 with 9:35 left.
The Vikings regrouped quickly as quarterback Luke Macias threw a screen pass to running back Rory Mitchell, who then took it 50 yards to the end zone to push the advantage back to 29-14 with 8:13 left in the third.
Money wasn’t finished, however, and on the next drive found a seam and broke loose for 36 yards on his way to pay dirt to keep the game close with 7:08 left in the quarter.
After the Bloodhounds’ defense got an interception from Alejandro Balderas, St. Joseph capitalized as Garcia scored on a 4-yard run. He ran it in for a two-point conversion to tie the game at 29 with 11:02 left in the fourth quarter. After a Vikings punt, St. Joseph took its first lead of the game after Garcia ran it in from 10-yards out for a 35-29 edge with 9:17 to play.
“Our job is to establish the run first and they came out and took that away from us (in the first half). We had to go out and get whatever we could,” Villarreal said. “We said at halftime ‘Lets start running the ball and wearing them down’ and luckily it worked in our favor.”
Nolan answered on its next possession when Macias scored on a 2-yard run, but the extra point was blocked and the game remained tied at 35 with 5:27 left.
The sophomore quarterback completed 22 of 35 passes for 419 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions and ran for 12 yards and another score, but it wasn’t quite enough.
“All the credit in the world to those guys,” Nolan coach David Beaudin said of the Bloodhounds. “They did a great job. They’re in great shape and at the end of the day, they wore us out.”
St. Joseph’s next drive burned four minutes off the clock and set up Kauachi’s big moment. The Bloodhounds’ defense held on, getting the turnover to finish off the hard-fought win.
Nolan came out of the gate on fire offensively, scoring on three consecutive drives in the first quarter. Macias hit receiver Damon Ramirez on a 37-yard pass play to take a 7-0 lead with 6:42 left in the quarter.
After a St. Joseph punt, Mitchell took it 49 yards to the end zone for a touchdown and a 14-0 edge with 5:06 left in the first.
The Bloodhounds ended their next drive with a missed field goal and the Vikings benefited as Macias found Draylon Roberson on a 64-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown and a 22-0 advantage with less than three minutes to play in the quarter.
St. Joseph scored in the second quarter after Money found Jorge Villarreal on a 27-yard strike with 8:50 left in the half.
After squandering a halftime lead, Beaudin took the blame for the loss.
“We just didn’t execute (in the second half),” he said. “We have to get the job done and I have to do a better job coaching them up.”
After watching his kicker create a special moment on his birthday, Villarreal said he never doubted Kauachi would come through.
“Jose Kauachi has been huge for us this year,” he said. “I’m so happy that on his birthday that we had to call his number. I was very confident in him.
“He’s clutch. He’s always been that way.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @andrewmcrum.