FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
CONVERSE — When the final few seconds ticked off the game clock, the La Feria Lions’ fan base knew it was the end of a long journey.
A season that had begun with a 34-23 victory against Donna North on Aug. 28, finished with a 42-21 loss to China Spring in a Class 4A Division I area playoff game on Saturday afternoon at Rutledge Stadium.
There were no tears and there were no hanging heads in sight, only the cheers and applause from the large traveling contingency that had made the four-hour trek to see their Lions fight to the end.
And they got what they came for.
They saw a team that was physically outmatched give every ounce of energy on every play, and they saw a quarterback take hit after hit, get up, limp back to the huddle and get ready to take another.
But as La Feria head coach Oscar Salinas said: “That’s just Isaac.”
“He played hurt all second half and it shows the toughness that he has,” said Salinas of senior quarterback Isaac Galpin. “It shows the underclassmen that they have big shoes to fill and what the standards are now.”
Despite the rough ending, it was the Lions who scored first after Galpin found the end zone on a 30-yard run to put La Feria up 7-0 with 6:54 left in the first quarter. Galpin faked a handoff to running back Russ Gonzalez and took the ball down the middle for the TD.
But China Spring quickly responded on its next possession. After a Lions interception ended the Cougars’ first drive, running back Keaton Dudik took the handoff from quarterback Kameron Coe and went 21 yards for the TD, evening up the score with 3:44 left in the first.
The Cougars scored 21 unanswered points before the Lions’ Gonzalez punched in a touchdown from a yard out to cut the Cougars’ lead 21-14 heading into halftime.
However, on the final play of the first half, Galpin took a hard hit on the sideline and had to be helped into the locker room.
Fortunately, Galpin recovered and led the Lions back on the field to start the second half.
However, the Cougars scored three unanswered touchdowns to take a sizable 42-14 advantage in the fourth quarter.
With 23 seconds remaining, Galpin scored the final touchdown of the game and of his high school career.
After the game, Salinas said a few words about his team.
“I’m really proud of this group. We had our chances, but we just got beat by a better team,” he said. “I thanked them for the great journey. They set a high standard for the program today.”