“I thought we played great,” said Rio Hondo head coach Rocky James. “Last week we played really well but we just didn’t get the points. Tonight we played the same way and we got the points in and we played a very strong defensive game. The defense was phenomenal all night long.”
The Bobcats played another great game behind a solid defensive performance that forced three turnovers in the game and kept giving their offense short fields to work with.
Offensively, quarterback Eli Pitones led the way for the Bobcats. The senior passed for 80 yards, rushed for another 52 and had a 60-yard punt return.
“He played tremendous, this was probably his best game of the year,” said James of Pitones. “Hats off to him. He works hard every day. At practice he works hard throwing the ball and he does whatever we need from him.”
Running back Marco Garate had a tough time getting started against a great defensive effort from the Bearkats, but the speedy senior still managed to rush for 86 yards and two touchdowns.
“Rio Hondo is good team it’s very obvious,” said Raymondville coach Frank Cantu. “Defensively they did a heck of a job, hats off to coach James and his staff.
“They came out with some new things and it took us a little while to adjust, but we feel that once we adjusted, we felt there was nothing they could get us with, I was that confident.”
Raymondville struggled for most of the night after going down 13-7 and when the team did respond turnovers kept the offense from gaining any momentum.
“Offensive we couldn’t get going, and a lot of that’s attributed to what coach James and to what he’s done, not just us, but to other teams,” said Cantu. “We love the challenge and that’s the only way we’re going to get better is to play teams like this.
“I just can’t say enough about our team and I’m really proud about the way they played.”