By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Port Isabel is going to run the football, that’s not something new.
Each year, the Tarpons seem to have at least a trio of running backs who each are capable of putting up 100 yards a game on the ground.
But without the boys up front, none of those backs would get the yards or the touchdowns that they tally game after game.
The Tarpons have had to use a collection of linemen this season due to injuries, but each has answered the call without a hitch. Mario Gaucin Jr., Agustin Hernandez, Pedro Gonzalez, Martin Puente Jr., Nick Marquez, Juan Mireles, Martin Alvarado, Peter Garcia, Oscar Del Abra and Raul Villarreal have filled in where needed on the line this season.
“We’ve been able to run the ball pretty effectively and you can’t do that without linemen,” Port Isabel coach Monty Stumbaugh said.
The Tarpons returned only eight players from last year’s senior-laden squad. So the offensive line, like most every position, had some sort of question mark in the offseason. But Port Isabel is so run heavy in Stumbaugh’s offensive system, it wasn’t something that could lapse, it had to be reworked to make an almost seamless transition.
The linemen answered the challenge by being the hardest working group in the offseason, Stumbaugh said.
“We felt that if we could get our offensive line (set), that we’d be OK,” he said. “This group of kids did really good in the offseason. They worked hard and came in prepared. We felt they could be as good as our line was last year. They have the potential to be just as good.”
The players knew what they had to do.
“We just want to make sure we can replace the guys from last year, because they were pretty good,” said Gaucin, the senior and new starting right tackle this season. “We just want to be above the line that was here last year.”
Hernandez, the senior and only returning starter for the Tarpons’ line, felt the group shared a bond.
“We push each other, we love each other like brothers,” he said. “We have fun doing what we do. We don’t care that we don’t get the glory of running the ball. We get that in the trenches. Knocking people to the floor, that’s what we care about: being physical and aggressive.”
It all comes down to collectively working together.
“Our kids take pride in running the football,” Stumbaugh said. “They’re hard workers and they take pride in what they do. We feel like we have a lot of kids that can go in and do the job. They know we believe in them.”
So much so that Stumbaugh is often asked by his linemen if the ball can be run more to one side or the other.
The Tarpons coach wanted to make sure the fuel behind the team’s rushing attack gets the credit they deserved.
“We tell them all the time, ‘As you go, we go,’” Stumbaugh said. “They’re a great bunch of kids. They love to play football. They’re very coachable. They have fun, and they play hard.
“We’ve been really pleased.”
Stumbaugh also makes sure his running backs remember who helped them during a successful night running the football.
“Our backs know that if they have a 200-yard game, it’s because someone up there was busting their tail and opening those holes up,” he said. “We try to control the line of scrimmage. If you can do that, you’re going to win a lot of games.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.