By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
With Friday’s 35-7 victory over Porter in the 20th “Battle of Southmost,” the Lopez Lobos remained undefeated at 4-0 and continue to journey down a path taken by only a few unbeaten football teams at their school.
The win at Sams Memorial Stadium gave the Lobos a 1-0 record in District 32-5A as they seek to return to the playoffs for the second straight season. Porter slipped to 0-4 overall and 0-1 in 32-5A.
Lopez wants to duplicate or surpass the showing of its 2001 team that started 8-0, won a district title and finished the season 9-2 under former head coach Valentin Montemayor.
The Lobos now hold an 11-9 lead in the overall series with their Southmost rival that began in 1996. They won against the Cowboys 39-10 last season after Porter triumphed 21-16 in 2015. The two teams didn’t play in 1998 and 1999.
It was all Lopez on Friday as the Lobos led 7-0 after one quarter, 14-0 at halftime and 21-0 going into the final period.
“It feels amazing (to be undefeated) because this school hasn’t done that in many years,” said Damian Zuniga, a junior offensive left tackle for the Lobos. “People may doubt us, but we just keep on bouncing back.”
Sparking the Lobos on offense were quarterback Alex Ramirez and running backs Christian Gamez and Jose Echavarria.
Ramirez threw touchown passes of 16 yards to Sebastian Mujica in the first quarter and 40 yards to Johnny Ibarra in the final period.
Gamez rushed for 106 yards and scored TDs on runs of 55 and 23 yards in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, while Echavarria recorded a game-high 149 yards rushing and had a scoring run of 24 yards around right end in the second quarter.
Trailing 21-0, Porter got on the scoreboard early in the final period when Ramiro Martinez broke loose on a 24-yard TD run around the left side of the line.
The Lobos had a 34-yard field-goal attempt sail wide early in the second quarter.
“This feels great because it’s a win,” Zuniga said. “We didn’t play pretty. We could have dominated if we had executed our plays better, but a win’s a win, right?”
Echavarria was grateful for all the fans who were on hand Friday at Sams.
“A lot of people came out to support us today, and for Porter, too,” he said. “We haven’t seen something like that in past years, so it felt pretty good having that type of attention. I thank my family, my girlfriend and everybody who came out to support us.
“It’s been a while now since we’ve started undefeated like this,” Echavarria added. “We’re just going to keep it rolling.”
District 32-5A action continues next week as Lopez plays host to Donna North on Thursday and Porter goes against Pace on Oct. 7. Both games are at Sams.