ROY HESS | Staff Writer
BROWNSVILLE — What a difference a week makes.
The San Benito Greyhounds came alive and rebounded from last Friday’s loss by triumphing over Brownsville Rivera 71-14 Thursday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
The victory in District 32-6A action clinched a playoff spot for the Greyhounds, who lost at home to Brownsville Hanna 30-0 in their most recent game prior to Thursday.
San Benito improved to 5-4 on the season and 3-1 in district with one game remaining at home next Friday against Los Fresnos to complete the regular season.
“The kids executed the game plan and got out there and played like a team,” San Benito coach Dan Gomez said. “We got a lot of our players involved. That’s one thing we try to do our best at (as coaches) is get the kids who work their tails off a chance to get out there and play.
“We’re not about stats at all,” he added. “Our kids are good kids and they enjoy playing together on this team. They like to see their buddies that sometimes don’t get too much playing time get out there, too.”
Rivera slipped to 0-9 and 0-4. The Raiders close the regular season next Friday at Harlingen High.
Rivera was coming off last week’s 41-20 setback at Sams against Harlingen South.
Leading the way for the Greyhounds on Thursday against the Raiders were a host of players, including quarterback Jacob Cavazos.
Cavazos, playing just the first half, threw a 59-yard touchdown bomb to Frankie Garcia on San Benito’s first play of the game, and after that, it was virtually all the Greyhounds.
Cavazos also threw TD passes of 58 yards to John Daniel Gonzalez and 9 yards to Juan Constante during the second period.
The Greyhounds led 13-0 after one quarter and were ahead 43-8 at halftime. They took a 64-8 lead into the final quarter.
Rivera QB Andres Perez scored on a 1-yard keeper early in the second quarter to make it 13-8.
It was close at that point, but not for long. San Benito soon exploded for a 30-point second period to put the game away early as the reserves started getting into the action before too long in the third period.
Pulling out a trick play, the Greyhounds made it 35-8 at the 5:09 mark of the second quarter when reserve QB Smiley Silva lined up as a wide receiver on the left side. He gathered in a lateral from Cavazos, turned to look downfield and then threw a 54-yard scoring pass to Brandon Valadez, who sprinted into the end zone untouched with no defender anywhere close.
Valadez later scored on a pair of 28-yard runs in the third quarter to boost the lead to 57-8.
San Benito’s last TD midway through the fourth period came on a 53-yard scramble by Silva, who by that time had replaced Cavazos at QB.
“I would like to say my hat goes off to the kids over there for the Raiders,” Gomez said. “Under dire circumstances, it’s always hard to come out and do something that takes a lot of physical preparation for (a game like this). To come out and play hard each and every week, it says a lot about those kids and their character and the job that Coach (Tom) Chavez and his staff do.”