By ANDREW CRUM | The Brownsville Herald
Pace fell behind early and couldn’t match the firepower of Mercedes.
The Vikings’ found themselves down in the first quarter and could never match the Tigers’ offensive output in a 61-21 loss to Mercedes during a District 32-5A game on Saturday in Week 7 at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Pace (2-4, 1-2) had its struggles all evening on offense — it finished with 286 yards, but had four turnovers — three fumbles and an interception. Senior receiver Gabriel Zapata had five catches for 82 yards and a touchdown and junior running back Brandon Zapata added 75 yards on the ground and a score.
“A mistake here and when they gave us opportunities we couldn’t take over,” Pace coach Danny Pardo said. “They capitalized on the things we did wrong … that’s what a good team does.”
Mercedes (4-2, 2-1) piled up 550 yards of offense as senior quarterback Mark Ledesma threw for 302 yards and a pair of touchdowns to junior wide receiver Leeroy Garcia, who finished with four catches for 126 yards. Ledesma also ran for a pair of scores as the Tigers finished with 241 yards on the ground, including 60 and a pair of touchdowns from senior running back Matthew Gracia.
“We wanted to make a statement,” Mercedes coach Roger Adame Jr. said. “You know how good teams do, they come out and respond. We wanted to come out and play Tiger football … the way we’re capable of playing. I don’t think we’ve played our best football yet; it’s still out there.
“These guys were determined to get back on track.”
Mercedes got off to a quick start and scored early and often. The Tigers sophomore running back Sonny Vela got a 2-yard run for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 10:54 left in the opening quarter.
Pace fumbled on its first drive and Mercedes capitalized as senior running back Matthew Gracia found the end zone after a 15-yard run for a 14-0 edge with 2:12 left in the first.
After a Vikings punt, the Tigers added a 28-yard field goal by senior kicker Luis Munoz to extend their lead to 17-0 with 9:31 to go in the second quarter.
Pace got on the board when it answered a minute and a half later as Brandon Zapata found a seam and went 68 yards for the score to cut it to 17-7 with 7:54 left in the second.
Mercedes got a short field after a Vikings punt and Ledesma hit Garcia on a 7-yard touchdown pass to build a 24-7 advantage with 1:46 left in the half.
Pace pulled within 24-14 after senior quarterback Randy Aguilar hit sophomore receiver Ilijah Solis on a 13-yard touchdown pass with just 23 seconds left in the half.
The Tigers needed one play to answer — a 70-yard bomb from Ledesma to Garcia — with just seven seconds left in the half to push the lead to 30-14 at the break.
After halftime, Mercedes continued its offensive break out. The Tigers scored 21 points in the third quarter, two rushing touchdowns by Ledesma and another score on the ground by Gracia to put the game out of reach.
In the fourth quarter, junior running back Alex Ramos scored on a 29-yard run and Munoz added a 29-yard field goal for Mercedes.
Pace also scored a touchdown midway through the final quarter as Aguilar hit Gabriel Zapata on a 20-yard pass play, but in the end it wasn’t enough.
Adame Jr. was happy the way his defense played. But he thinks his team is still improving.
“We hadn’t had a turnover in two games, we challenged them in practice (to force turnovers),” he said. “We knew we were playing a tough, improved Pace with some playmakers and we knew we had to get some takeaways against an offense like this.
“Credit to Pace, but there’s more potential there (for our team) and we’re going to find it. We have to go back to work and we’ll have to be firing on all cylinders next week against Edcouch-Elsa.”
For Pace, too many mistakes against a good Mercedes team was its undoing.
“They’re a good team,” Pardo said. “They were a better team than we were (Saturday). That’s just the way it goes sometimes. We have to regroup and make sure we don’t make the little mistakes that we made this week. Those are the ones that cost you and against a team like this, they’ll expose you pretty quick.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.