FREDDY GONZALEZ | Valley Morning Star
LA FERIA — Senior Julian Trevino scored three touchdowns and junior Darius Hernandez scored another two TDs as the La Feria Lions cruised past rival Santa Rosa 47-0 in the annual Battle of FM 506 Friday evening at Lions Stadium.
The win gave the Lions a 3-2 record heading into a bye week before starting the District 16-4A DI schedule on Oct. 13.
The loss also put the Warriors at 3-2 heading into their bye week. Santa Rosa begins its District 16-3A DI schedule against San Diego, also on Oct. 13.
“I think we played really well tonight,” said La Feria head coach Oscar Salinas. “Coming into the game, I was really worried about the mental part of the things after coming off a big win last week. The question was ‘could we refocus’ and we did even with homecoming festivities.
“The kids are starting to grow and you can tell they’re getting better. Tonight the kids came out and, right off the bat, our offense moved the ball and scored.”
The La Feria offense showed its maturity early on as it moved the ball at will against the Warriors’ defense and immediately got on the board after Darius Hernandez dazzled the crowd with some nifty footwork before bouncing to the outside and taking the handoff 18 yards for his first touchdown of the night.
After forcing the Santa Rosa offense off the field, the Lions’ Dorian Hernandez found junior Noah Conde for a short pass that quickly turned into a 56-yard touchdown as the speedy wide receiver made the Warrior defense miss before taking it the distance and put La Feria up 14-0 with 6:07 left in the first quarter.
With 2:39 left in the first, the touchdowns kept coming for La Feria. This time it was the senior wide receiver Trevino who took his first handoff of the night and went 12 yards for the touchdown and a 20-0 lead. Trevino finished the night with 97 yards receiving, 51 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
The Lions’ running back Darius Hernandez and QB Dorian Hernandez scored a touchdown a piece to stretch La Feria’s lead to 34-0 at the half. The sophomore quarterback finished the evening with more than 200 yards passing and one rushing touchdown.
Hindered by turnovers and mental errors, the Santa Rosa offense looked out of sorts at times. After averaging 29 points per game coming into the contest, the Lions defense showed its mental fortitude.
“Our defense is where our experience and depth is,” said Salinas. “They’ve done a great job. Other than the CC Veterans game, defensively we played a great game and the coaches did a good job preparing these kids.”
OTHER TOUCHDOWNS ON THE NIGHT: Darius Hernandez scored on a 9-yard TD run with 9:25 left in the second quarter.
-Dorian Hernandez scored on a 10-yard TD run with 1:33 left in the second quarter.
-Julian Trevino scored on a 38-yard TD run with 9:48 remaining in the third quarter.
-Julian Trevino and Dorian Hernandez connected on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 7:13 left in the third quarter.