By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
PORT ISABEL — Port Isabel has been a work in progress offensively this season and it didn’t help itself against La Feria.
The Tarpons’ offense — already without it’s top two quarterbacks because of injury — didn’t get going until late in the game and four turnovers proved costly in a 45-13 loss to the Lions in The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week on Friday in Week 4 at Tarpon Stadium.
Port Isabel got a pair of late fourth quarter touchdowns — a 69-yard run by senior running back Travis Camacho and a 12-yard pass from junior quarterback Sebastian Martinez to senior running back Omar Morales — but its struggles early on didn’t help matters.
“We’re running into some quarterback problems,” Port Isabel coach Jaime Infante said. “We had some young guys playing (Friday), we started with three (quarterbacks) and ended up with two … looks like we lost another quarterback. We’ve been injury riddled, no question about that. But I think we can right the wrongs. We had too many discipline mistakes … we hurt ourselves with penalties early and it kept us from getting in the groove.
“These are times when football teams have to come together and people have to step up.”
The Tarpons (1-2) finished with 182 yards of offense, including 154 through the air, but the majority came in the fourth quarter. The four turnovers — three after halftime — killed any momentum that Port Isabel was trying to use to get going. The Lions (2-2) piled up 524 yards of offense and built a 45-point lead before Port Isabel got on the board with 4:47 left in the fourth.
Martinez was 6 of 9 for 93 yards and a touchdown and Camacho finished with 60 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown for the Tarpons.
La Feria took advantage of Port Isabel’s mistakes early on. After the Tarpons had a bad punt snap give the ball to the Lions inside the Port Isabel 25-yard line, La Feria took a 7-0 lead with 9:26 left in the opening quarter after quarterback Dorian Hernandez hit Nicolas Vasquez on a 18-yard strike.
After Port Isabel punted on its next drive, Hernandez found the end zone after a 46-yard run and the Lions took a 14-0 advantage with 5:18 to go in the first.
La Feria stalled after a long drive in the second quarter, but managed a 31-yard field goal by Tony Torres for a 17-0 edge with 3:28 to go in the half.
Port Isabel couldn’t convert on its next drive, turning the ball over on downs and La Feria again took advantage. Hernandez capped a 51-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run with just 33 second left in the half for a 24-0 edge at the break.
“It’s a monkey off our back, (Port Isabel) has had our number,” La Feria coach Oscar Salinas said. “It was good to regroup after last week. We threw the ball well and were able to get behind them for some big pass plays which loosened us up and then we got the running game going.
“Our defense did a great job all night as well.”
The Lions opened the third quarter with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Dorian Hernandez to Darius Hernandez to push the lead to 31-0 with 7:58 to play in the third.
After a Port Isabel interception, La Feria scored with 37 seconds left in the third with a strike from Dorian Hernandez to Julian Trevino to extend the lead to 38-0.
In the fourth quarter, La Feria’s defense forced a fumble and the Lions capitalized with a 2-yard touchdown run by Eduardo Fernandez to make it 45-0 with 5:26 to play.
Dorian Hernandez finished 19 of 22 for 322 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 78 yards and two more scores for the Lions.
La Feria knew it needed to cut it turnovers down to give itself a chance and it did. The Lions had just one fumble, but it didn’t matter as Port Isabel punted.
“That was our Achilles heel coming into this game,” Salinas said. “We worked really hard at eliminating turnovers this week and being really disciplined. It’s a big, satisfying win … to be on the road, to beat Port Isabel in Port Isabel after a bad week last week.
“We needed this.”
Despite the loss, Infante believes his team can regroup and overcome their rash of injuries.
“You find out how mentally tough you are as a ball club,” he said. “We’re going to challenge the kids to see how mentally tough we are … I’m hoping these guys learn from these lessons.”
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.