After scoring the opening touchdown of the game, Martinez put the team on his back and carried the Red Ants to a 38-27 victory over the Santa Maria Cougars Friday evening.
“Last year they didn’t utilize him much, but this year we started putting him on punt returner and started throwing more balls out to him,” said Progreso head coach Frank Martinez. “Tonight he showed that he was a man amongst kids and we started feeding him the ball more and you can tell that the kid is the man.”
Martinez finished the night with an eye-opening 190 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
With the win, the Red Ants improve to 1-3 on the season as they prepare to begin a grueling 16-4A DII District schedule on next week against West Oso.
Despite the loss, Santa Maria was never out of the contest. Down 7-0 in the first half, the Cougars’ Mathew Sanchez came up big for Santa Maria as he returned a 60-yard punt with just 40 seconds remaining in the second quarter to tie the game at 7.
However, that was more than enough time for Progreso to feed the ball to Martinez, who sprinted down the middle of the field for a 45-yard run to put the Red Ants in field goal range.
Up 10-7 after the break, Progreso’s Jose Medrano stretched the lead with an 8-yard rumble down the left side of the field for a 17-7 lead.
But the Cougars did not back down as Sanchez, once again, gave Santa Maria life with a 59-yard touchdown reception to cut Progreso’s lead 17-14.
Sanchez dazzled the home crown again in the fourth with a 37-yard TD run to give the Cougars their first lead of the game at 27-24.
However, Martinez scored two touchdowns late in the contest to put the game out of reach.
“Something that we preach is perseverance,” said Martinez. “We’ve started out good in games and then just kind of backed off whenever somebody came at us.
“We showed a lot of resilience today and that is something we can be proud of.”
For Santa Maria, turnovers hindered the team’s opportunities. The Cougars finished the night with three fumbles and one interception.
“Turnovers killed us,” said Santa Maria head coach Steve Flores. “Losing our center early in the game didn’t help, but Progreso played well and our kids fought back as well as they could.
“Luckily we’re open next week and we’ll use that time to get healthy and get ready for district.”
With the loss, Santa Maria dropped to 3-3 overall as they get ready to take on Three Rivers in two week.