KEVIN LU | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
MISSION — Mission Veterans Memorial hung on until the final minutes Friday for a 17-14 Class 5A bi-district playoff win over Donna High at Tom Landry Stadium.
Mission Veterans took a 17-0 lead when quarterback Santos Villarreal scored a three-yard rushing touchdown midway through the third quarter. It capped off a 12-play, 80-yard drive that the Patriots’ no-huddle offense completed in less than three minutes.
Donna High answered for its first score on the ensuing drive as the game crossed into the final quarter. On a third-and-goal on the eight-yard line, quarterback Edward Dougherty rolled right as tight end Kristian Montemayor came left across the defense. Dougherty connected with him wide open in the end zone. It was Dougherty’s first action in the game since leaving the quarterbacking duties to Amonte Bowen after Donna’s first possession.
“We always knew it was going to be a battle,” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said. “They came back, like I knew they would.”
On the next possession, Villarreal scrambled on a third-and-11 and threw the ball away as Donna’s Eddie Garza intercepted the pass.
Seven plays later, receiver Ruben Tristan caught Dougherty’s pass in the back of the end zone for a 37-yard touchdown to pull Donna within 17-14 with 5:25 left.
Donna always figured it was “going to come back in the second half,” coach Ramiro Leal said. “Make some adjustments, I thought we’d be okay. We’d been clicking.”
Mission Veterans punted the ball away on the ensuing possession, but forced Donna to into a turnover on downs to essentially end the game.
The Patriots scored twice off Donna turnovers early in the game. Mission Veterans recovered a fumbled Donna punt and turned it into a 30-yard field goal a 3-0 lead.
The Patriots then recovered a bad punt snap on Donna’s 15-yard line. Villarreal found Roman De Leon on the next play for a 10-0 lead. Villarreal had 129 yards passing with a touchdown and 64 yards rushing with a touchdown.
“Defensively, we knew we had to play strong in the box,” Gilpin said about how his team shut out Donna for three quarters. “I showed them one yard … if we can control that one yard, we can win, and we did it tonight.”
Donna had chances to score in the first half, but missed field goals of 31 and 30 yards, respectively.
“It just wasn’t our night,” Leal said. “Those two missed field goals really were crucial to us … you take points off the board, and it’s hard to overcome them.”