By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
A word of advice: Don’t mess with the Lopez Lobos’ defense.
Defense has been one of the strongest parts of the Lopez football team this season as the Lobos return to the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
The District 32-5A co-third place Lobos (7-3) go against District 31-5A co-champion Laredo Nixon (9-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Roma’s Gladiator Stadium in the Class 5A Division I bi-district playoffs. The winner moves on to play Corpus Christi Carroll or Eagle Pass Winn next week.
Lopez has the stats to back up its strong defensive play.
The Lobos finished the regular season with the top-rated defense in 32-5A, allowing only 232.6 yards per game. Lopez has recorded two shutouts (44-0 vs. PSJA Memorial and 31-0 vs. Donna North), which is a fairly remarkable feat in this time of wide-open, high-scoring offenses. In three other victories, the Lobos allowed only 15 or fewer points.
“We started at the bottom our sophomore year, and we’re a band of brothers who have always been together throughout our losing seasons (of the past),” said Jesse Luna, a senior middle linebacker for the Lobos. “We’ve come together and bought into this program. Our new defensive coordinator (Hugo Ramirez) has us playing a ‘Seek and Destroy’ defense. We’re not sitting back. We’re going (on a blitz) and making plays in the (offensive) backfield.
“It’s kind of exciting to be back in the playoffs after 10 years,” Luna added. “We just have to go out and do what we do.”
On defense for Lopez, the captains are Luna and Rulber de la Torre, a senior tackle.
“This is my second year (to play) and we’re more aggressive now,” de la Torre said. “I feel better about the way we’re playing. We just need to keep playing hard on every play and not stop.”
Besides de la Torre, Lopez’s five-man defensive front includes ends Josue Lucio, Juan Rodriguez and Lorenzo Uresti, who alternate, plus tackle Peter Garcia and nose guard Christian Godinez.
The linebackers are Luna and Leo de la Torre, who is Rulber’s younger brother. The secondary consists of cornerbacks Jose Ochoa, Brandon Frausto and Marco Solis, free safety Irving Perez and strong safety Alec Angeles.
“It’s a great privilege to start on this defense,” said Leo de la Torre, a junior. “We’re out there doing our best. I feel this team can move up (in the playoffs). What I really like is that our defensive coordinator has trusted us and believed in us that we can be as aggressive as he wants us to be. That helps us motivate each other and get to the ball. We’re just going to keep going and ‘Seek and Destroy’ so we can prove people wrong.”
Ramirez has been an assistant coach for the Lobos four seasons. He’s now getting his chance to set the defense and he’s pretty pleased to be making the alignment calls. Ramirez, along with Matthew Barba, another Lopez assistant coach, have been strong proponents of powerlifting and the strength gained from that activity has carried over to the football field for the players.
“I’ve taught these guys to be aggressive and they’re going (strong),” said Ramirez, whose defensive influences include coaches Mario Pena and the late Hector Garcia. “There’s not a lot of thinking about it, we’re just attacking. Our mentality is we want to get to the quarterback or running back before he touches the ball.
“We want to make the offense not want to come out for the second half,” he added. “The players have bought into what I was selling. It’s been a great ride and a lot of hard work has gone into it. It starts with hard work in the summer. That hard work (eventually) pays off and it’s paying off right now. We’re bringing a lot of pride back to Lopez High School.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess