ROY HESS | Staff Writer
This time, the “Battle of Southmost” in football belonged to the Porter Cowboys.
Ending a run of three straight wins by Lopez, the Cowboys defeated the Lobos 48-23 Thursday at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Lopez still leads the “Battle of Southmost” series between the two schools in football 12-10.
The Cowboys improved to 2-2 on the season and 1-2 in District 16-5A Division I. Lopez slipped to 0-4, 0-3.
It was The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week.
“Finally, we had a complete game,” Porter coach Carlos Uresti said. “We got off to a fast start for the first time during this short season that we’ve had so far. We came out and moved the ball up and down the field and finally showed some urgency early in the game and not waiting until the second half, which seems to be what we’ve done in past games.
“I think what this win does is just solidify what we thought about our team from the very beginning of the season,” Uresti added. “We knew this was going to be a special team. We had some unfortunate losses at the end (of games against Pace and La Joya Palmview). We had two losses by a combined four points (17-14 to Pace and 27-26 to Palmview).
“This is a good team that we have here, and this kind of puts us back to what we thought we could do, which is play all four quarters. Let’s see what the outcome is ahead for us.”
It was also a rare night when the Cowboys were attired in all red uniforms. The change in color from their traditional blue didn’t seem to hurt the Cowboys’ chances at all, and maybe even helped them.
“This is the first time to wear these (red) uniforms,” said Adam Gonzalez, Porter’s senior left offensive guard. “It’s a nice style. I really love it. It’s the third color of Porter, which is blue, white and red. It’s really a nice change-up.”
Gonzalez said he is happy to go out as a senior with a “Battle of Southmost” victory after three losses to the Lobos.
“This win feels great,” he said. “After my whole four years of varsity, it feels so good to take that ‘Southmost’ crown back. It’s amazing after three years of losses to Lopez.”
Porter led 14-3 after one quarter and 41-10 at halftime.
During the first quarter, Cowboys quarterback Kevin Garcia scored on a 35-yard run and running back Joey Saldana went into the end zone from 7 yards out to make it 14-0 before Lopez’s Isaias Rangel converted a 34-yard field to close the gap to 14-3.
It became 28-3 during the second quarter as Porter’s Brandon Reta scored on an 11-yard run and Saldana added a 28-yard touchdown scamper.
Also durng the second period, Lopez QB Jose M. Cruz tallied on a 9-yard run with 8:13 left before halftime to cut Porter’s lead to 28-10.
But Porter came back and added a pair of TDs before intermission.
Garcia scored his second and third TDs of the opening half on runs of 7 and 14 yards during the final 7:08 of the second quarter.
Garcia had 138 yards rushing on eight carries by halftime.
After a scoreless third period, Lopez scored twice in the fourth quarter and Porter once to account for the final score.
Cruz’s 3-yard TD run with 10:42 showing in the final quarter cut Porter’s lead to 41-17. Brian Franco’s 14-yard TD run with 5:27 to go put Porter back up by 31 points, 48-17.
Late in the game, the Lobos recovered their own fumble in the Cowboys’ end zone for a touchdown on a play from the Porter 3 to make the score 48-23 with 1:52 remaining. That’s the way the game ended.
Last year, Lopez defeated Porter 21-14 at Sams.
The Cowboys were coming off last week’s 27-26 loss at Sams to Palmview. Lopez lost 69-19 at Rio Grande City last week.
District action continues for both teams as Lopez is at Donna High next Thursday and Porter plays host to Mission Veterans Memorial at Sams next Friday.