By KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
COLLEGE STATION—The La Feria Lions had some question marks heading into their state 7on7 tournament.
One of those questions was at the wide receiver position after the Lions lost two of their top targets in Noah Conde and Darius Hernandez to graduation earlier this summer.
La Feria just may have found their solution in senior wide out Caleb Flores.
Over the weekend Flores and fellow senior quarterback Dorian Hernandez showed their strong connection, especially with their deep ball.
“Caleb has been my teammate for forever; he and I are in the same class,” Hernandez said. “We have played on the same team for a long time and he and I just have that connection. He is my go-to guy on this offense and we just work together. It is something we are looking forward to come the season.”
While the combo shined at the state meet, Flores saw the chemistry relish their junior year.
“We came out here and worked hard,” Flores said. “Now we need to keep working harder as we get ready for the season. Our chemistry started our junior year; that is when I started in games and we just built a connection on and off the field. (Hernandez) does a great job on throwing me the ball and I just bring them in.”
Lions head coach Oscar Salinas was pleased with his team’s performance and saw the team answer some questions.
“We were proud of the boys, they came out and performed well over the weekend,” Salinas said. “We had some opportunities to win over the weekend. There were just some little things, but they played tough and they represented the Valley well. We showed that we have some good kids that can compete. We took a lot from this and we saw some things that we can take back with us and we can work on. We also found some kids that can go out and do things for us and we had some young receivers grow up in this tournament.”
On Friday the Lions picked up a 37-32 win over Brownwood before bowing out to Melissa 28-21, wrapping up the tournament with a 2-3 record.
The Lions led 21-7 in their final game, but let the two-score lead slip away with Brownwood rallying late for the win.
“This was a fun weekend and I will cherish these memories for the rest of my life,” Hernandez said. “We have a great team and they came out and competed. What we learned about ourselves is we have a lot of heart and we can compete with anyone.”
Rio Hondo meanwhile wrapped up their tournament play with a 28-19 loss to Jourdanton. The Bobcats finished the tournament 0-4.