MISSION — Pioneer junior quarterback Jacob Rosales ran for two touchdowns and threw for another as the Diamondbacks won comfortably against the Laredo Cigarroa Toros 34-12 in their district 31-5A opener.
Pioneer coach Jason Wheeler wanted to see improvement on his special teams after showing some deficiencies in their win last week.
“I wanted to spend this week working on special teams because we lost a lot of hidden yards against Brownsville Pace,” Wheeler said. “We didn’t cover kickoffs well or punt the ball well either. But we came out and showed the work we put into it.”
The Diamondbacks (2-1) scored touchdowns on their first four possessions on Friday night.
LA JOYA JUAREZ-LINCOLN 31, DONNA NORTH 3: At La Joya, the Huskies kept their high-octane offense going with another 30-plus point performance, winning their homecoming game.
Juarez-Lincoln will face its toughest opponent yet when it travels to face Edcouch-Elsa in its final non-district tuneup next week.
DONNA HIGH 16, LA JOYA HIGH 0: At Donna, the Donna High (2-1) defense extended its scoreless streak to six quarters in their shutout win of La Joya High.
“Our defense has stepped it up. I’m really proud of these kids,” Donna High coach Ramiro Leal said. “We’re physical.”
Donna High’s scoring began with a safety. On their next possession, senior quarterback Hector Guerrero tucked it and ran it in from 10 yards out on a boot to push the lead to 9-0 going into halftime. Guerrero threw for a touchdown to senior wideout Eddie Villarreal to finish up the scoring in the second half.
“We put him (Eddie) in an isolation with three receivers to the left and one to the right,” Leal said. “We had one of our best receivers one-on-one, and Hector put it in a good place for Eddie to make a play.”
RIO GRANDE CITY 63, VALLEY VIEW 0: At Rio Grande City, the Rattlers (2-1) spread the wealth around Joe R. Sanchez Stadium, knocking out the Tigers. Rio Grande City had seven different offensive players score touchdowns and two additional scores coming on the defensive side of the ball.
“A lot of kids contributed,” Rio Grande City coach Aaron Garcia said. “It was a total team effort.”
Garcia also said his team finally put together a good offensive game after scoring 21 points combined in their first two games.
“We had those turnovers in the first half and had some missed opportunities against Zapata,” Garcia said. “It was just a matter of getting in sync and tonight we were in sync.”
Rio Grande City tallied 510 yards of total offense against Valley View.
SANTA ROSA 21, PROGRESO 18: At Progreso, the Red Ants played three near perfect quarters, but they couldn’t quite hang on, as they fell to 0-2, while the Warriors improved to 3-0.
“We are learning. We are a young team,” Progreso coach Frank Martinez said. “I only have three seniors on the whole team, so all of these guys I’m just trying to get them to believe in each other and become united. It is working. We are coming around.”
The Red Ants scored twice in the first half with rushes from junior Jose Medrano and sophomore Josh San Roman.
“We have been working on our running game,” Martinez said. “Tonight we were winning in the trenches.”
Martinez said the Red Ants held the Warriors to 210 total yards, while amassing over 300 themselves.
Progreso was ahead 15-7 at the half and had a lead entering the fourth quarter.
“It comes back to numbers,” Martinez said. “We don’t have a lot of numbers, so we started tiring out there a little bit towards the end. … I think we had a bad fourth quarter. We are going to emphasize playing four quarters.”
PORT ISABEL 31, HIDALGO 13: At Hidalgo, the Pirates dropped to 0-3, while the Tarpons improved to 1-1.
RIVIERA KAUFER 47, MONTE ALTO 28: At Monte Alto, the Blue Devils fell to 1-2. The Seahawks improved to 2-1.
SANTA GERTRUDIS ACADEMY 47, LA VILLA 0: At La Villa, the Cardinals now sit at 0-3, and the Lions are 2-1.
BROWNSVILLE LOPEZ 61, PSJA MEMORIAL 7: At Pharr, the Wolverines remained winless on the year, while the Lobos pushed their undefeated streak to three games.