By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
HEBBRONVILLE — The Santa Rosa Warriors had a tough night opening their season with a 40-7 road loss to the Hebbronville Longhorns in a District 16-3A Division II South Zone game.
Santa Rosa’s offensive line was overpowered by the Longhorns’ defense, keeping the Warriors from finding any kind of rhythm. Penalties and special teams also were an issue in the debut, kinks coach Hector Ayala said would’ve been worked out with a normal preseason.
“We’ll have to learn from our mistakes,” Ayala said. “I told the kids, ‘You have to accept it. You don’t have to like it, but accept it and learn from it because we have a quick turnaround on Monday against Banquete.’ I liked that they never gave up. That’s a positive sign.”
Hebbronville opened the scoring on a rushing touchdown by senior receiver Eleazar Naranjo, helped by a bad snap on a Santa Rosa punt that created a short field. Junior running back/defensive back Joshua Almaraz scored on an 89-yard breakaway, and senior quarterback Matthew Tolentino connected with junior running back/linebacker Jaden Alaniz for a passing touchdown to go up 21-0 after two quarters.
Santa Rosa senior quarterback Reese Lara and senior running back Jose Diaz-Mendez played hard to lead the offense. Lara was often rushed out of the pocket, but he displayed his vision and elusiveness to escape pressure and pick up yards with his legs.
Diaz-Mendez ran with power and handled the bulk of the carries during the fourth quarter. The duo ran with purpose in the second half, taking to heart the message Ayala delivered in the locker room with the team trailing by three scores.
“I just told them that’s not who we are out there in the first half. We’re a much better team than that, and we play a lot tougher than that,” Ayala said. I told them to come out and do their job, and they did a good job with that. They came out with fire and that’s what you want to see. You don’t want to see heads down and all that.”
Lara and Diaz-Mendez combined to get the Warriors into the red zone for the first time late in the third quarter. Santa Rosa turned to the pass on third and fourth down from the 9-yard line, and Hebbronville’s Almaraz notched an interception to end the scoring threat.
The Longhorns used two fake punts sandwiched between good stretches from Santa Rosa’s defense that almost resulted in three-and-outs to eat up clock in the third. Junior running back/linebacker Brandon Salazar recorded two rushing touchdowns during the second half, and freshman running back/linebacker Rene Ramirez added a score on the ground after Hebbronville recovered a fumble to start the drive in the red zone.
Santa Rosa found the end zone on the last play of the game to avoid a shutout. On fourth-and-9, Lara hit junior receiver Derek Guerra, who beat good coverage by a step, with a 32-yard pass for the score as the final buzzer sounded. Senior Adrian Carrera was successful on the PAT to make it 40-7.
“We were really excited coming in, and we knew we were going to have mistakes. But we’ll fix them,” Lara said. “I really feel confident in this team. I have faith in us, and I believe we’ll make the playoffs. I’m not going to stop playing ’til I hear the final whistle, and I just kept thinking, ‘We need to score.’ I know it didn’t go our way, but we just need to pick our heads up and be ready next week.”
Ayala said the touchdown and no-quit mentality the team showed will serve as motivation for the Warriors as they prepare for Monday’s district road game against Banquete.
Ayala said there are a lot of execution things to tend to, but the Warriors will focus on the positives, too. He liked the blocking effort from junior Rene Flores Jr., and senior defensive pieces Carlos Ortega and Brave Munoz and junior Jonathan Terrazas were solid. Diaz-Mendez added an interception on defense to his strong offensive performance.
“They got us today, and that’s just the way it is,” Ayala said. “Special teams is where we hurt a little bit more. Defensively, I think they did a great job, especially when we came out in the second half. You could see that they’re there. We did stop them, but in the end they just played too much football. It hurt a little bit by not moving the ball offensively on our part.”