By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Friday’s game certainly was one to remember for the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds.
The Bloodhounds built a 21-0 lead during the first half and managed to stay ahead of a determined Port Isabel squad the rest of the way in beating the Tarpons 42-27 during the final non-district game of the season for both teams at Canales Field.
It is believed to be SJA’s first win against Port Isabel since a 28-26 triumph in 1977.
The Bloodhounds led at halftime against the Tarpons in 2012 and 2014 but wound up losing.
“This is a big game. We’ve been there before (in the lead against Port Isabel),” SJA coach Tino Villarreal said. “But (previously) we haven’t been able to close out the game (and win). Tonight our boys showed they have a lot of heart, and they want to change the tradition here at the school back to the way it used to be.
“This was just a very big win for us with a lot of emotion,” added Villarreal, whose ballclub won its fourth straight game and improved to 4-1 on the season. “Our defense sure showed it with the way our guys were playing. Our offensive line also deserves a lot of credit for the way they were blocking. It was just a great victory for us.”
SJA led 14-0 after one quarter and 21-7 at intermission after being up 21-0. The Bloodhounds took a 28-13 advantage into the final period.
Sophomore quarterback Kai Money sparked the SJA offense, tallying touchdowns on runs of 4, 3 and 43 yards and throwing scoring passes of 3 yards to Dave Lapeyre and 39 yards to Bernie de la Garza. Money rushed for 144 yards and passed for 111 yards.
Also for SJA, sophomore running back Anthony Cantu burst up the middle and sprinted 45 yards to the end zone midway through the fourth period to make it 35-19.
Quarterback Omar Silva was a standout for the Tarpons (3-1). He rushed for fourth-quarter TDs on runs of 4 and 2 yards. Earlier, he threw TD passes of 7 yards to Jonathan Garza and 52 yards to Anthony de la Garza. Silva rushed for 95 yards and passed for 131 yards.
SJA marched 65 yards in 10 plays to score on its opening possession for a 7-0 lead, thanks to Money’s 4-yard run, and then recovered an onside kick to set up its second TD. An 11-play drive that covered 48 yards following the onside kick recovery resulted in a 14-0 advantage for the Bloodhounds on Money’s 3-yard scoring run with 7:05 showing in the first quarter.
“We’ve been practicing that onside kick all week long,” Villarreal said. “We knew they were going to give it to us. It was just a matter of execution, and that was our theme for tonight — can we execute when it matters the most?
“That (onside kick) was definitely a crucial play of the game that gave us the ball back and allowed us to go ahead by an even bigger margin,” Villarreal added. “You have to be up against the Tarpons if you want to have a shot at beating them. They’re not an easy team to sneak up on.”
The Tarpons had 12 procedure penalties that cost them 5 yards each time, and they fumbled the ball away once. Altogether, Port Isabel was flagged 14 times for 90 yards.
“You can’t make those kinds of mistakes against a good football team (and expect to win),” Tarpons coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “We told our guys that even (starting) last Saturday. St. Joe has a lot of speed, they’re explosive on offense and they proved me right.
“We weren’t lacking in effort, but we just made way too many mistakes,” Stumbaugh added. “You can’t do that against a good team. We fought back and had our chance to cut it to one score (late in the game), but we gave up another score (to make it 42-27) and that helped them win. The bottom line is they played better than we did tonight.”
Both teams are open next week.