BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
WESLACO — When Weslaco High senior running back Jeremy Coronado was injured in the preseason, he was told he might not make it back onto the field this year.
Coronado would not take no for an answer, and on Friday, he scored Weslaco High’s first TD, firing up the Weslaco offense and the crowd at Bobby Lackey Stadium.
“I wanted to punch it in bad,” Coronado said. “It feels great to be able to score at home. I believe it is my first (touchdown this year) here at home, so it felt great.”
The Panthers (7-1, 3-1) clinched a playoff spot by rolling past a game Edinburg High team (6-2, 2-2) 33-7 on Weslaco’s Homecoming night.
“We knew we were playing a physical ballclub,” Weslaco High coach Michael Salinas said. “I have a lot of respect for coach (J.J.) Leija and his staff and what they have done at Edinburg High. They are a resilient bunch. They play extremely hard. We started a little slow on offense, but that had to do with them as well. Fortunate our defense kept plugging away and gave us some opportunities to get out on top.”
The Weslaco special teams unit set the tone early, as the Bobcats received the opening kickoff and were immediately pinned back at their own 13. EHS senior quarterback Matt Cruz was back in action, and added some much needed versatility to an offense still reeling from the loss of junior Erik Cano.
Still, the Bobcats went three-and-out, and intended to punt. The intention was not to become reality. Weslaco senior linebacker Seth Sanchez blocked the punt of EHS senior Raymond Quintanilla.
“It felt good,” Sanchez said. “We came into this game knowing we could block it, and we did on the first one.”
As Salinas said, Weslaco couldn’t quite get the ball rolling on offense, and the Panthers turned the ball over on downs.
EHS responded in kind, and Weslaco senior kicker George Martinez put the first points of the game on the board on Weslaco’s second possession with a 36-yard field goal.
It was then that the EHS offense woke up, launching a 16-play 52-yard drive.
“We had given up a couple first downs that we thought we could have stopped, but again tribute to those guys,” Salinas said. “And then our guys dug their cleats in the ground and got the stops when they needed to.”
And Sanchez was once again at the center of a huge play for Weslaco, sacking Cruz on fourth down to end the threat.
“Seth is special,” Salinas said. “He plays extremely hard. He works extremely hard. He’s grown up a whole bunch. We are just really proud of the progress he has made to this point.”
That was the moment for Coronado to step up. Coronado ran three of the first four plays for 40 combined yards, highlighted by a monstrous run that brought the Panthers down into the red zone.
Coronado returned from injury in Week 5 against Edinburg Economedes. Each week his yardage total has grown, and that trend would have continued had the Panthers needed more offense later in the game Friday.
Coronado scored his first two touchdowns of the season last week, and he was the spark for the offense this week.
“Anytime you come back from injury it will take a minute,” Salinas said. “But, he’s been working steadily to get back in shape and condition. We are so proud of the effort of both of the running backs.”
Coronado finished with 7 carries for 49 yards. Weslaco’s other feature back, junior Peyton Knaub, had 7 carries for 29 yards.
Junior quarterback Jacob Cavazos was the workhorse, carrying the rock 14 times for 135 yards.
The Panthers exploded in the third quarter. On the first play from scrimmage, Cavazos ripped a 66-yard touchdown run. He then found tight ends Rolando Berrones (junior) and Isaac Villarreal (senior) on back-to-back touchdown passes to balloon the Panthers’ lead to 30-0.
“We have been working hard the past two years,” Sanchez said. “We haven’t clinched in a while. We put in work in the summer, and it feels good to come back and clinch a playoff spot.
“Last year, we struggled. We just knew we had to trust coach Salinas coming into this year, and in the summer, we believed it. We did what we needed to do, and now we have clinched it.”