PHARR — The PSJA North Raiders snapped a three-game losing streak to the PSJA Bears on Friday night as they came away with a dominating 28-0 victory in the annual Tri-City Classic at PSJA Stadium.
Going into the half with a 7-0 lead, Raiders head coach Marcus Kaufmann said he felt his team should have been ahead by more, if not for self-induced mistakes. His team cleaned up those mishaps and used a 14-point third quarter to pull away comfortably.
“We were overly excited early in the first half with the atmosphere,” Kaufmann said. “We have a bunch of young kids. The whole community talks about this ballgame. So, they come in here all starry eyed and made a bunch of little mistakes. We just cleaned that up a bit and what should have happened in the first half finally happened in the second half when we calmed them down a bit.”
It was the dynamic duo of freshman quarterback Sergio Aparicio and junior running back Isaac Gonzalez that jump-started the offense during the second half.
On the first drive of the second half, Aparico came to life, breaking off a 20-yard run to set up the Raiders with a first-and-10 on the 25-yard line. He capped off the drive two plays later, hooking up with wide receiver Nathan Ortiz on a 25-yard touchdown strike.
Following a quick three-and-out by the stingy Raiders defense, the offense marched down the field again, this time led by Gonzalez’s powerful running including an 18-yard pitch to set up the Raiders in enemy territory. Fullback John Castro capped off the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run, putting the Raiders up 21-0.
“They’re starting to mesh,” Kaufmann said of Aparicio and Gonzalez. “Now they’re starting to talk to each other. Three of the biggest runs for Isaac were checks by Aparicio. We haven’t been able to do that these past couple of years. He’s (Aparicio) also doing that on top of the play you guys see. The intangibles that he does behind center where he calls the plays at the line of scrimmage are huge for us.”
The Raiders took an early 7-0 lead as Gonzalez punched it in from 1 yard with 4:07 left during the opening quarter. But it was the defenses that stole the show during the first half, as neither offense could get the ball moving.
In the end, the Raiders’ defensive front proved to be too much for freshman quarterback Jaime Lopez and the Bears offense all night, sacking the signal caller multiple times. Junior Christian Ramirez tallied two sacks.
Senior Sergio Pecina added the final touchdown with 55 seconds remaining for the final mark.
The Bears (0-3, 0-3) will travel to Edinburg on Nov. 27 to face Edinburg Economedes. The Raiders travel to Mission to take on the Eagles in a clash of two of the top teams in District 31-6A.
“It was a big one for our zone tonight,” Kaufmann said. “Now we’re in a huge ball game next week against Mission on Thanksgiving Friday. It’s gonna be fun. It’ll be a playoff-like atmosphere when we go there. But tonight gets us in that driver’s seat. These guys are growing. Each game as they’re going, they’re getting better and better. We’re super young but these guys are starting to believe.”