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At Rio Grande City, Ramon Espinoza scored three touchdowns to lead the Roma Gladiators over their district rival Rio Grande City Rattlers for a second consecutive year, 19-14.
Espinoza, the workhorse running back, had accumulated 108 yards and two touchdowns by halftime, as his team trailed 14-13.
Midway through the third quarter, though, Espinoza scored his 17th TD of the year to put his team ahead for good in their District 31-5A opener.
Roma improved to 5-0 overall, 1-0 in district. Meanwhile, RGC dropped to 2-3, 0-1.
DISTRICT 30-6A
McALLEN ROWE 42, LA JOYA JUAREZ-LINCOLN 25: At La Joya ISD Stadium, McAllen Rowe scored 35 unanswered points to erase a 19-0 deficit in a win against Juarez-Lincoln.
“I’m happy with the way our defense stepped up and our offense came back to execute,” coach Paul Reyes said. “Just not happy with the way we started things.”
McALLEN MEMORIAL 60, LA JOYA HIGH 14: At McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium, Trevor Speights ran 15 times for 320 yards and five touchdowns as McAllen Memorial cruised past La Joya High.
DJ Johnson also scored twice for the Mustangs, who led 48-7 at halftime.
“I thought we came out and played real well overall,” coach Bill Littleton said. “All three three phases had good games. The kids played really well.”
DISTRICT 31-6A
WESLACO EAST 38, EDINBURG NORTH 34: At Weslaco, a late interception from Jesus Infante handed the Wildcats their first district win of the season. Although East’s defense came up big in the end, they struggled to get stops for much of the evening, allowing 450 yards.
“We’ve got some things we still need to work on,” Wildcats coach Mike Burgett said. “But I thought they responded great when they needed to.”
Offensively, East was led by senior running back Emilio Tamez, who rushed for 250 yards and 5 touchdowns.
DISTRICT 32-6A
BROWNSVILLE VETERANS MEMORIAL 35, HARLINGEN SOUTH 28: At Brownsville, Brownsville Veterans Memorial fell behind early but came back when it counted.
The Chargers were behind by a pair of scores during the first half, but quarterback Marcus Castillo scored three touchdowns in the second half. Castillo scored four touchdowns on the ground — including the game winner with seconds left — and threw for another score to lead the Chargers to the comeback victory.
DISTRICT 32-5A
BROWNSVILLE PORTER 52, DONNA NORTH 44, 4 OTs: At Donna, The Chiefs remained winless despite giving the Cowboys a strong game.
Porter improved to 3-1, while Donna North fell to 0-4 in year two of varsity football.
EDCOUCH-ELSA 42, PSJA HIGH 0: At Elsa, the Yellowjackets used the strong play of backup quarterback Andrew Segura to take their District 32-5A opener.
Edcouch-Elsa improved to 3-1. PSJA High fell to 0-4.
DISTRICT 31-5A
SHARYLAND PIONEER 6, VALLEY VIEW 4: At Pharr, the Diamondbacks won their fifth consecutive game, outlasting the Tigers in both teams’ district opener.
Pioneer (5-0, 1-0), which entered Friday with the best defense among its 31-5A counterparts, faced another formidable unit in Valley View (0-5, 0-1), which boasted the third-best defense in district heading into the matchup.
NON-DISTRICT
MONTE ALTO 48, PHARR ORATORY 0: At Monte Alto, the Blue Devils scored six times on the ground to improve to 2-3 overall.
“Overall, we had a great team effort,” Monte Alto coach Cesar Castillo said. “It’s hard to single out any one guy on the team.”
For the first time this year, the Blue Devils had enough bodies (41 players) to have separate squads play on offense and defense. It gave the team much-needed relief, after playing with a smaller roster to start the season.
“It helps because we’re trying to give some of these younger guys repetition,” Castillo said. “We’re trying to get them as much experience as we can and boost their confidence.
“There’s no substitution for game experience. So, in the long run, it’ll help us out.”
BRUNI 33, LA VILLA 6: At Bruni, the Cardinals were unable to build from their first win of the season last week, dropping to 1-4 overall.