DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
Donna High coach Ramiro Leal and Mission Veterans Memorial coach David Gilpin, opponents for Friday’s Class 5A bi-district playoff game at Tom Landry Stadium, are believers in momentum.
The Patriots (7-3) have won four of their last five games, for example, but Gilpin doesn’t harp on that. He stresses on the one loss, an underachieving 39-12 defeat last week to Edinburg Vela.
“My thought process, maybe a month ago, was I thought this would be a game we’d be favored in going up against maybe PSJA, PSJA Southwest,” Gilpin said of previous potential playoff matchups. “Now we’re coming off a tough loss to Vela and (Donna) is coming off a nice pressure win at Edcouch-Elsa. That tells you what kind of roll they’re on.”
The Redskins are 6-3, but Leal couldn’t care less. He cares about the team’s four-game winning streak, including last week’s do-or-die win that kept the Redskins from the outside looking in.
“Football is as much mental as it is physical,” Leal said. “When you win and win, you start believing you can win and it gets contagious. When teams start to win, the confidence gets up, momentum starts carrying, and then you get Amonte Bowen back … things start falling in place.”
Ah, yes, Bowen. Momentum is also nice when it comes with the return of a familiar face.
The junior quarterback was a potential district MVP candidate before he broke his collarbone during the team’s last scrimmage in August. He made his return to the field last week and looked like he didn’t miss a step, amassing 121 yards and two touchdowns off 17 carries despite not playing the fourth quarter.
Bowen adds another physical runner and/or blocker to Donna’s power I offense. The Patriots faced some big, quick runners last week against Vela and didn’t fare so well, giving up 264 rushing yards and 6.1 yards per carry. The Redskins average 273.8 rushing yards.
“If we don’t do a better job of tackling, we may be looking at the same type of thing like what happened against Vela,” Gilpin said. “It’s a concern, we have to tackle better. They have the same big backs we faced against Vela.
“We’re going to have to play well in the box.”
Leal said his game-plan tonight is easy. Keep the ball away from Mission Vets senior quarterback Santos Villarreal, one of the Valley’s most electric signal-callers who has passed for 1,959 yards and 16 touchdowns and ran for 541 yards and seven more TDs.
Mission Vets is desperate to establish a tradition like Donna’s. Making the playoffs for the fifth time in sixth years is a good start, and actually beating the Redskins would be a better one.
“Momentum is big in athletics,” Gilpin said. “Not even just over the course of the season, but in a game, too. It’s huge. It’s two-fold for us … the momentum of a four-game winning streak before being crushed by a loss last week. Now they’re coming in on their own four-game win streak.
“Momentum is on their side. Those types of things are what make sports so interesting and fun.”