By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Pace Vikings don’t have to wait very long for their first really big challenge of the football season.
In fact, it comes in their season opener at 1 p.m. Saturday when they take on Edinburg Vela, ranked No. 2 in the Rio Grande Valley, at Sams Memorial Stadium.
The game will be a rematch of the season opener played by the two teams one year ago when Vela won 56-21 on its home field after leading only 14-7 at halftime.
“It was a tight game going into the second half,” Pace coach William Deen said of last season’s matchup against Vela. “We learned that you have to compete all four quarters. We weren’t ready to play in the third quarter. Vela came out and was ready to play in the second half (and pulled away).”
Vela is coming off a 10-2 playoff season and looking better than ever with six starters back on offense and five on defense for coach Michael Salinas, a former standout as a player at Edinburg High.
“Our preseason ranking is what it is, and we’re not going to put much weight into it,” Salinas said. “Our guys have set some standards for what they want to do this season, and that’s a motivation for them to do well.”
One of the key returnees for the SaberCats is junior running back Robert Guerra, who rushed for 617 yards and 12 touchdowns last season while earning newcomer of the year honors in District 31-5A. He split time in the backfield in 2014 and figures to be a main focus of Vela’s offense this time around.
The Vikings return four starters on offense and six on defense from their 3-7 team of one year ago that won two of its last four games.
“Against a team like Vela, we have to be very well prepared, and we can’t do things to hurt ourselves like commit turnovers,” Deen said. “We can’t give up big plays. We have to keep the momentum on our side. Yes, it will be a challenge.”
Pace will look to its defense, which is where most of its experience returns. Key players on that side of the ball for the Vikings include linebackers Mauricio Aguilar and Narciso Guevara.
Also, the Vikings have some size on the line with Chris Reyes (6-foot-3, 285 pounds) and Xavier Perez (6-6, 290).
Each coach said his team will not be dwelling on he fact that it’s an afternoon game on the artificial surface at Sams. Unless rain magically appears, it’s going to be hot.
“It’s an even playing field for both teams,” Deen said. “We’re not going to be worrying about the conditions. We’ll do our job (as coaches) to keep the players hydrated and do the best we can to play well.”
Salinas sees it as an important test for his team.
“It’s a 1 p.m. game on the road, so there are lots of factors involved,” he said. “We’re just going to control what we can control and hope that we’re conditioned well enough that we can play four quarters of solid football.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.