By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
BROWNSVILLE — The La Feria Lions are 5-0 in football halfway through the regular season thanks to Thursday’s 55-7 non-district victory against the Brownsville Rivera Raiders at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Actually, it’s the second straight season for the Lions to start 5-0. They reached that undefeated mark one year ago after defeating the Raiders 21-14.
This time, the result against the Raiders was more decisive.
While La Feria improved to 5-0, Rivera slipped to 1-4.
“Our offense was very explosive this game,” said La Feria quarterback Dorian Hernandez, a senior, three-year starter who rushed for three touchdowns and passed for two more scores against Rivera. “I know we’ve been explosive in many other games, but in this game, we started clicking right off the bat. We scored on two early drives, and that’s the first time we’ve done that (in a while).
“Being 5-0 is a big boost for our confidence,” Hernandez added. “We work hard every day, day in and day out, and I think we deserve this, we really do. Being 5-0 again this season is a really good feeling because we’ve done it two years in a row already now. It boosts our confidence majorly. We have a lot of confidence, but we stay level-headed, too.”
Rivera drove to the La Feria 18 on its first possession, but came away empty-handed when a fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
The Lions then scored on two of their next three possessions with a lost fumble inbetween to make it 14-0 by the end of the opening quarter. Hernandez tallied on scoring runs of 1 and 8 yards to account for the Lions’ two-TD, first-period lead.
During the second quarter, Hernandez threw scoring passes of 23 yards to Dereck Perez and 50 yards to Caleb Flores to increase the Lions’ advantage to 28-0 with 2:18 to go until halftime.
La Feria kicker Sergio Rodriguez booted a 20-yard field goal on the final play of the first half to make it 31-0 at intermission. He later kicked a 35-yard field goal with 55 seconds remaining in the game to account for the final score.
It was 45-0 by the end of the third period. During the third quarter, the Lions scored on Avishai Dickerson’s 24-yard run and Hernandez’s 14-yard scamper to hike the Lions’ lead to 45-0 with 9:54 left in the third period. Dario Sanchez’s 2-yard burst into the end zone at the 9:39 mark of the fourth quarter made it 52-0.
Rivera closed the gap to 52-7 on Alberto Garcia’s 11-yard TD run with 3:57 left to play before Rodriguez added his second field goal — a 35-yarder — with 55 seconds left.
“What stood out to me was how we came out and played so well offensively,” La Feria coach Oscar Salinas said. “We had a fast start tonight. We’ve been kind of sluggish (getting started) in other (recent) games. Our guys just came out fired up and ready to go.
“We had two days of work (in practice), and we didn’t feel we had enough preparation for this (Thursday) game with all the blitzing that Rivera does,” Salinas added. “The players on both sides of the ball (for us) came out with great intensity.
“Dorian played really well. He’s just getting better every week. He’s a multi-year starter, and he had one of his best games tonight. It’s a great feeling to be 5-0 again, but for us, it’s just a matter of continuing to get better for District (32-4A Division I). We have a long season, and we have some big-time goals we want to accomplish.”
La Feria was coming off last week’s 47-7 victory at Port Isabel. Rivera suffered a 50-28 setback at Sams last week against Sharyland Pioneer.
The Raiders are headed into an open date prior to the start of District 32-6A action. La Feria plays a non-district game at Rio Hondo next Friday.
Hernandez said he wanted to say he greatly appreciates the La Feria fans.
“I’d just like to say thank you to everybody for coming out and showing their support, even on a Thursday night,” the La Feria QB said. “I thank the community for all the backup we’ve had. It’s like having another player on the field, like having a 12th man. We know our fans have our backs, and they’re going to ride with us far into the playoffs.”