EDINBURG — Everything pretty much went right on one side of Cats Stadium on Friday night.
The other? Not so much.
Spurred by a high-tempo effective offense and a hard-hitting, unforgiving defense, the San Benito Greyhounds had little trouble with Edinburg High in a 45-0 season-christening whitewash.
While San Benito (1-0) was head and shoulders better than an outmanned Bobcat squad (0-1), there was no celebrating or gloating afterward as Coach Dan Gomez and his squad knew it counted as one win in the standings.
“It’s just what we’ve been preaching since we got here: Our kids just keep playing,” Gomez said. “We saw some good things, and we had some issues. But tonight could’ve been Edinburg’s night. In high school football, you never know. Coach (Joaquin) Escobar does a great job with what he has.”
The all-business attitude is nothing new for War Dog and San Benito was able to see a variety of players in new roles, many of them thriving..
Perhaps none shined brighter in the spotlight than running back Edward Alvarez, who zipped for 195 yards and three touchdowns on just 16 carries. Alvarez, the new feature back in coordinator Gilbert Leal’s offense, was shifty and explosive behind an experienced Greyhound offensive line paving the way.
In the first quarter after a superb interception from DB Mario Valdez, San Benito capitalized on a two-yard score from Alvarez to open the scoring with 3:49 left in the opening stanza. Later, new starting quarterback J.R. Gaitan found Armando Medrano on a five-yard strike and the Hounds’ lead stood at 14-0 early in the second. Gaitan was solid with 116 yards passing go to with 78 yards rushing. Medrano was on his game with eight grabs for 96 yards of his own.
Later, it got better—or worse depending on your point of view.
Alvarez added a six-yard score before half and San Benito took that three-touchdown edge into the locker room.
Edinburg recovered an onside kick to start the second half but couldn’t muster a long drive. The Bobcats had sporadic flashes running the ball, but did not complete a pass until midway through the second half and found it tough going for a majority of the ballgame.
Three plays later, Alvarez got his hat trick with a 22-yard scoring jaunt as the lead swelled to 28-0 with 5:40 left in the third. The TD was no. 22’s final carry on the night.
With reserves on, the Greyhounds didn’t lose much steam. Running back Jonathan Gutierrez dove in from a yard out with 1:29 to go still in the third and later added another short plunge in the fourth. Alejandro Lugo’s 25-yard field goal rounded out the scoring for the visitors.