BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
MISSION — A year’s worth of board approving, planning, rebuilding, installing and rescheduling at Mission CISD’s Tom Landry Stadium finally gave way to what the building was made for on Friday nights: football.
Mission Veterans greeted its home fans for the first time on its own turf and gifted them a 25-17 victory over Brownsville Lopez in a Class 5A Division II bi-district playoff game.
“There’s not a more special time in the season than the playoffs,” Mission Veterans quarterback Landry Gilpin said. “Hearing that we were going to be able to play at our own stadium was extra motivation for us. Just getting here and seeing the stands was awesome.”
Mission Veterans (10-1) will travel to play Corpus Christi Flour Bluff (9-1) in the area round at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Mission Veterans won its area round matchup against Flour Bluff during the 2016 postseason.
The Patriots wanted an elegant homecoming Friday, but the Lobos mucked up the first half. Lopez forced three turnovers out of Gilpin on two fumbles and an interception, but Vets still led 10-3 going into halftime.
The Patriots caught the Lobos napping at the start of the second half, recovering an onside kick at the Lopez 25-yard line. A 1-yard touchdown run by Gilpin upped the Mission Veterans lead to 16-3.
“I told my special teams coordinator, ‘Onside,’” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said. “Bottom line: if we’re going to kick it out of bounds, they’re going to get the ball at the 35-yard line anyway. What a great job he did, and a great job by Leo Cantu to run down there and pick it up. Boom. All of a sudden, we’re off and running.”
On Lopez’s next possession, Mission Veterans linebacker Joey Garcia picked off Lopez quarterback Marco Solis and took it 39 yards to the house.
“I opened up to my left side, and I saw his helmet, turning toward me,” Garcia said. “He released the ball, and then I ran. I started screaming as I was running (to the end zone). I thought someone was behind me, because I saw a shadow to my right. I was excited.”
David Gilpin knew the 22-3 lead after Garcia’s touchdown wouldn’t be enough to close out Lopez.
“The fact we were up by that much was surprising, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind about the kind of fight that football team was going to bring,” David Gilpin said. “I tried to tell everybody that. We were going to have a battle on our hands. We weren’t going to go out and beat them 60-10.”
Lopez (8-3) made its first serious push in the fourth quarter, scoring 14 points on touchdown passes by quarterbacks Marco Solis and Alex Ramirez. Down eight with 1:19 remaining in the fourth, Lopez charged down the field and reached the Veterans’ 13-yard line.
With 1.8 seconds left, Solis took the snap and scrambled out of the shotgun but couldn’t escape a gang of Patriots tacklers who sacked him as time ran out.
“I knew that it may be this kind of game where we’d have to pull it out at the end, and we did,” David Gilpin said. “That’s all that matters. Wins and losses are all that matters in the playoffs.”