By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Pace got off to a fast start and didn’t let up against Porter.
The Vikings scored on two straight possessions early in the first quarter and never trailed in the 32-14 victory over the Cowboys in The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week on Friday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Pace quarterback Randy Aguilar led the way with a pair of touchdowns, one on the ground and one through the air. The junior accounted for 249 yards of offense to give Pace (1-4 overall, 1-1 in District 32-5A) its first win and first district win of the season. Aguilar completed 19 of 29 passes for 194 yards and ran for 55 yards on five carries.
“We just needed to bounce back from that lost against (Brownsville) Veterans,” Aguilar said. “We needed to get a quick start and we never stop going. It feels amazing, but it was a team effort.”
The Vikings’ defense did its part, forcing four turnovers — two fumbles and two interceptions (by Luis Flores and Rafeal Dominguez) — while holding Porter (0-5, 0-2) to 196 yards of offense.
“I’m proud of the defense,” Pace coach Bill Deen said. “They made things happen.”
Pace got on the board in a hurry to start the game. After Porter fumbled the opening kickoff, giving the ball to the Vikings on the Cowboys 37, Gabriel Zapata gave Pace an early lead with a 1-yard touchdown run with 10:32 left in the opening quarter.
After a Porter punt, the Vikings struck again less than a minute later as Aguilar found a seam and ran for a 60-yard touchdown to give his team a 15-0 advantage.
“We feel like we have to do things on special teams that not everyone does to make things happen to get turnovers and get off to a fast start,” Deen said. “They’re a good football team. We knew we had to play fast and at a high tempo and we did that. I think that helped us out tremendously.
“We wanted to set the tone early and against a team like Porter, you have to get off to a fast start and put them in chase mode.”
That’s exactly what it did. In the second quarter, Porter got one back as Johnathan Gonzalez ran it in from 6 yards out for the touchdown with 2:39 left in the first half to pull within 15-7.
But Pace answered on the ensuing drive as Aguilar hit Victor Rodriguez on a fade route into the end zone for a 15-yard score just seconds before the end of the first half and a 22-7 edge at the break.
“We just didn’t execute,” Porter coach Tom Campos said of the Cowboys early struggles. “They got that quick score and anytime you’re fighting from behind it’s never a good thing.”
Pace increased its lead in the third quarter. Brandon Zapata took it to the end zone after a 12-yard run with 7:47 left in the third and later Pedro Perez hit a 31-yard field goal to push the advantage to 32-7. Zapata finished with 129 yards on the ground and a score for the Vikings.
Gonzalez found pay dirt again after a 17-yard run with 8:42 left in the fourth quarter, but Porter didn’t get any closer. The senior running back finished with 100 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns for the Cowboys.
Once again, Porter can’t seem to get a break to go its way.
“A lot of things didn’t go right and we’re trying to solve the mystery as we go,” Campos said. “We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot and that’s been the theme for the year and we have to find a way to break that trend. We’re doing everything else right, it just isn’t translating on the field.”
For Pace, it was a relief to get its first victory of the season.
“Hopefully this puts us on a roll,” Deen said. “But it feels real good. It gets the big gorilla off our back.”
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.