What a difference a year makes.
After the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds blew out the Grulla Gators by 29 points in last season’s opener, they could not get out of their own way this time around.
Grulla put the pressure on St. Joe senior quarterback Kai Money on defense and controlled the ball on offense as they rolled to a 38-22 Week 1 victory Friday night at Canales field.
“To face a team like St. Joe Week 1 is always tough,” Grulla head coach Abel Gonzalez III said. “Kai Money is one of the best quarterbacks in the Valley and he was a huge, huge test for us last year — he killed us. We had to adjust to their tempo and a year gets us ready for that.
“We didn’t just want to let him sit back there and be comfortable … we felt one of our strengths would be our defensive line.”
Money, despite constant pressure and being sacked four times, managed to move the Bloodhound offense, but it was three first-half turnovers in Grulla territory that halted potential scoring drives.
“You can’t turn over a ball against a good football team and that’s just a reality of football,” St. Joseph head coach Tino Villarreal said. “When you look at the turnover margin, the team with the most turnovers is going to lose that game. That was us tonight. I thought our offense could get rolling when it wants to get rolling, but tonight we had a couple of hiccups there.”
The Gators looked sharp from the start, taking the game’s opening drive 75 yards in 7 plays, capped off with a 32-yard touchdown from quarterback Dillen Salinas to receiver Miguel Flores.
A 2-point conversion made it 8-0 less than four minutes into the game.
The Bloodhounds drove to the Grulla 48-yard line on their second possession and looked to keep going after Money found receiver Pablo Zolezzi for a first down.
But Zolezzi would fumble soon after and Grulla’s Joe Ramos recovered at the Gator 32.
That set up another long Grulla drive, this one ending with and Ebenezer Cantu touchdown on a 3-yard run eight plays later to make it 16-0.
“We wanted to sustain long drives and we wanted to keep (St. Joseph’s) offense off the field,” Gonzalez III, “We took advantage of some turnovers they had in the first half to help us get that early lead.”
St. Joe’s woes continued as it fumbled inside the Grulla 10 and Money threw an interception in Grulla territory. The Gators would take their 16-0 lead into the half.
“It really didn’t affect me that much knowing we’re going into the half and Grulla only scored twice,” Villarreal said. “That’s not that big of a deal when we had three opportunities to score and we came up empty handed with turnovers. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. We had everything we wanted handed to us, but we can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Money bounced back in the second half, finding Zolezzi on a 36-yard deep strike down the left sideline to cap off an eight-play, 75-yard drive to make it 16-8.
The Bloodhounds would turn the ball over on downs and punt on their next two drives, while Grulla scored on its first two of the second half.
Grulla’s second drive was extended on a St. Joseph muffed punt, which led to Salinas’ second touchdown pass of the night, finding Flores all alone for an easy 18-yard touchdown to make it 30-8.
The duo hooked up for a third touchdown, this one a 52-yard catch-and-run early in the fourth to make it 38-8.
Money and the Bloodhounds took advantage of sloppy Gator play in the fourth quarter and scored twice in the second half but still trailed 38-22.
Salinas finished with 147 yards and three touchdowns on an 8-for-10 passing night and racked up 129 yards on the ground. Flores hauled in six passes for 125 yards and three scores. Cantu had two rushing touchdowns for Grulla.
Money threw for 178 yards, three touchdowns and an interception on 13-of-22 passing.