BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Over the course of a season, the injury bug will bite a team. It’s bound to happen. Football is a physical game.
Mission Veterans, a District 16-5A Division I frontrunner with big postseason plans in Region IV, has been bitten by the injury bug more than a few times this season. Key defensive players like senior Eriberto Villarreal and Joe Ortiz missed a few games. Offensive linemen Eric Espinoza and Andres Garcia, two players who give quarterback Landry Gilpin the freedom to freestyle in the pocket, were out of the lineup in late September.
Mission Veterans safety Elias Delgado was a part of the laundry list of injured Patriots. In Mission Vets’ Week 3 win against Brownsville Veterans, Delgado forced a Charger turnover, but he was injured in the scrum for the loose ball. Delgado dislocated a knee and required a stretcher to get him off the field.
“What I remember thinking was, ‘I hope it’s not serious,’” Delgado said. “We have great players as backups, but I wanted to be out there too. I wanted to accomplish the goals that we set as a team instead of watching from the sideline, being disappointed.”
Delgado was all over the field against PSJA Southwest (2-5, 2-4) on Thursday. He sacked Javelinas quarterback Jalen Galvan and recovered a fumble in his first game at Tom Landry Hall of Fame Stadium since the injury. The Patriots (6-1) downed the Javelinas 40-17 to improve to 6-0 in district play.
As Delgado was whisked off the field and to a local hospital five weeks ago, he couldn’t help but fear the past becoming the present. Mission Veterans lost senior defensive backs Giovanni Grimaldo and Aaron Fernandez to season-ending injuries late last season.
“My knee was numb and I was afraid it was an ACL or MCL because I didn’t know what those injuries felt like,” Delgado said. “Great DBs like Giovanni (Grimaldo) and Aaron (Fernandez) tore their ACLs. I was afraid I was going to be the next one.”
Delgado missed the Patriots’ next two games and healed up an extra week with their Week 6 bye. He returned to the field last week, compiling 13 tackles against Donna High.
“The guy’s a football player,” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said. “He’s always around the line of scrimmage. He’s a linebacker in a defensive back’s body. Sometimes we have to move him back because he’ll be lined up next to (linebacker) Joey (Garcia). He’s a heat-seeking missile. It’s great to have him back alongside (safety) Gus (Garza) out there.”
Junior wide receiver Mikey Garcia made a few appearances in the Patriot offense for the first time in nearly a month. Garcia injured a hamstring while warming up before Mission Veterans’ Sept. 20 game at Rio Grande City.
This week, Garcia told Gilpin that he was starting to feel healthy enough to play again. Garcia, The Monitor’s All-Area Newcomer of the Year as a sophomore in 2017, marked his return with a 50-yard reception from Landry Gilpin late in the second quarter.
“I felt a little bit like myself again on the first drive, but then it (the hamstring) started to get to me,” Garcia said. “I had the 50-yard play and that’s when I pulled it. I was running down the sideline. I made a cut with my left leg and then I felt it pulling. After that, I didn’t want to risk going back into the game.”
Mission Veterans trailed 10-6 after the first quarter, but the offense found its groove and began to stack its touchdowns in bunches. Landry Gilpin threw for 243 yards and four touchdown passes. Sophomore A.J. Gonzaque added to his yardage total as the Upper Valley’s leading wide receiver. Gonzaque caught four passes for 109 yards and two scores.
“I’m not pleased with the first half, there’s no doubt. But I am extremely pleased with how they reacted in the second half,” David Gilpin said. “It’s difficult to come out here, week after week, on an emotional high. It’s hard to do that for 10 games. NFL teams have flat games. College teams have flat games. We came out flat because I don’t think the kids understood how good a team PSJA Southwest is. There has been vast improvement in their program.”