By ANDREW CRUM,Staff Writer
Pace had its opportunities on offense, but turnovers spoiled them during the course of the night.
The Vikings hurt themselves as the offense fumbled three times — twice in the first half — as Sharyland Pioneer turned them into points and defeated Pace 32-6 on Saturday in Week 2 at Sams Memorial Stadium.
“Very, very disappointing,” Pace coach William Deen said. “We didn’t play well on offense. Right off the bat we lost our starting left tackle, Chris Reyes, he makes a big difference, he’s a difference maker, great kid. That slowed the offense down pretty quick, and we just kind of struggled from there. We couldn’t get a rhythm going.”
The Vikings offense’ struggled to get things going against a tough Sharyland Pioneer defense, gaining only 137 yards of offense.
“It makes a big difference,” Deen said of the early injury. “We had to bring some young kids in. They didn’t have a lot of playing experience and they had to grow up real fast.”
Sharyland Pioneer’s defense came up with a fumble recovery on Pace’s first drive. The Diamondbacks turned it into a touchdown after Alejandro Ramirez hit Sergio Lopez on a 21-yard pass as Sharyland Pioneer took a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter.
Later in the first, Leo Rios kicked a 33-yard field goal to increase the Diamondbacks’ lead to 10-0.
During the second quarter, Pace drove deep into Sharyland Pioneer’s territory only to fumble once again. The Diamondbacks took advantage, as Ramirez connected with Alec Garcia on a 77-yard catch and run for the touchdown to give Sharyland Pioneer a 17-0 lead.
“We did some good things on offense, and then we sputtered a little bit,” Sharyland Pioneer coach Jason Wheeler said. “We have to be more consistent running the football. We got the ball to some of our playmakers and played pretty sound.”
During the second half, the Pace offense fumbled again and the Diamondbacks again turned it into points. Chris Melendez found Tyler Bulthuis on a 41-yard pass play for the touchdown, and Sharyland Pioneer took a 24-0 lead in the third quarter.
“We’ve been playing pretty good defense all year,” Wheeler said. “That’s one area last year that kept us in a lot of games. They have a lot of confidence, a lot of experience, and they’re playing pretty well. That’s a key for us.”
Pace didn’t get on the board until Mauricio Aguilar intercepted a Melendez pass during the fourth quarter and returned it 94 yards for the touchdown to cut the deficit to 24-6.
“I think our defense played very, very well,” Deen said. “We didn’t always put them in a great position, but I thought the defense came to play.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Garcia returned a short kickoff 70 yards for another Diamondbacks touchdown to make it 30-6.
The Vikings’ woes continued on the next drive as a penalty moved them back around their own 10-yard line, and then a botched snap caused the ball to go into the end zone and result in a safety for Sharyland Pioneer, pushing the lead to 32-6.
Wheeler was happy his team won two phases that they didn’t last week, the turnover ratio and fewer penalties.
“I was proud of that, we didn’t beat ourselves,” he said.
Deen took the blame for the loss, feeling he hadn’t prepared his team well enough.
“We have to do the best for these kids to prepare them for next week’s game against Lopez,” he said. “We got to put this game behind us, but we can’t continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. You can’t do that.”
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.