By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
It was a rough start for Lopez, and it didn’t get much better.
Lopez had seven turnovers — including four during the first quarter — and La Joya Palmview took advantage with a 53-7 victory in a non-district game Friday in Week 1 at Sams Memorial Stadium.
“(Turnovers is) the story right there,” Lopez coach Jason Starkey said. “As I told you, we had to take care of the football and stop the run. We stopped the run pretty successful at times, but other times we did not. Turnovers was the story of the night, we obviously have to clean that up and do a better job of taking care of the football.”
Lopez quarterback Saul Mendoza was intercepted four times, with three of them coming during the first half and one that was returned by La Joya Palmview linebacker Mark Salinas for a touchdown near the end of the first quarter.
Lopez also fumbled three times on the night, backup quarterback Albert Martinez was intercepted once and the La Joya Palmview defense notched a safety on another drive as the Lopez offense struggled with just 164 yards of offense.
“Field position is a killer when you turn the ball over,” Starkey said. “It changes, as does momentum, and that’s what we’ve got to look at and see why that’s happening.”
La Joya Palmview running back Joel Pina rushed for three touchdowns during the first half, scoring on runs of 77, 1 and 29 yards, and Misal Guerra added another score on a 29-yard run as their team built a 36-0 halftime lead.
“We did what we wanted to do. They did turn the ball over, and I think that’s what changed the tempo of the game,” La Joya Palmview coach Margarito Requenez said. “We got on them quick and that was the whole point, getting on top and not letting them catch fire.
“That was (the game plan). We saw their film, we knew what they could do. They are a good passing team, but for some reason today they were just off and it just played to our benefit.”
Pina added his fourth touchdown, a 43-yard run, during the third quarter. The junior finished with 237 yards against Lopez.
“We had two seniors last year, and (Pina) didn’t play too much,” Requenez said. “He was just waiting his turn. We knew he was special, we just had to see him in a complete game.”
Lopez finally got on the board in the third quarter when Mendoza scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper.
Ivan Olivo led the Lopez offense with 75 yards on 18 carries.
Lopez had a good balance of runs and passes but didn’t sustain drives that ended because of turnovers, penalties or punts after stalling against the La Joya Palmview defensive pressure.
La Joya Palmview also added a rushing touchdown from Arturo Gutierrez and a field goal during the second half.
Despite the loss, Starkey was proud of the way his team refused to give up.
“I’m proud of the way they competed until the very end,” he said. “We’re about attitude and effort, and it doesn’t matter what the score is, I want my kids to play with a great attitude and give maximum effort. I thought they did a better job of achieving that in the second half.
“The first non-district game didn’t go our way, but we’ve got a really great challenge in Porter next week and that’s where we’ll shift our focus.”
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.