AS PLAYOFFS LOOM ON HORIZON

BY GREG SELBER

BROWNSVILLE – If someone told you they were impressed with a ball club after watching it get pummeled by 50 points at home, your first instinct would be to schedule a rapid intervention with that someone, starting with a search for empty glue bottles on the floor of their vehicle.

But the truth is, with 6:37 left in a one-sided rout here Thursday, the Raiders of Brownsville Rivera illustrated why brighter days might be ahead. Behind 64-14 to a Weslaco bunch that was flat ON all night, Rivera lost the ball on downs at its own 26 and its rookie coach, David Cantu, moved toward the field, clapping his hands and exhorting his kids to hustle off the field. The latter stages of a rough one, as it had devolved from a 14-14 tie after one period to a relentless beatdown, the Panthers holding the Ugly Stick.

One might have expected the upstart Raiders to quit, mail it in, give up, and start crying, moaning, or just not caring. After all, they’ve had distinct playoff hopes lately, but now grasped the realization that they would have to get a whole lot of assistance to make it back to the postseason for the first time since 2003.

But at 6:37 of the game, a match that would end up that way, 64-14, visitor, the Raiders (3-3 in league, 3-6 overall), showed what they’re made of these days.

They ran off the field. Every one of them.

It may seem like a hollow or merely symbolic victory, but with the new spirit of Cantu in town, well, let city athletic director Tom Chavez explain. The man who built Rivera into a sudden powerhouse, taking the Black Pack to the playoffs back in 1991, in just their second varsity season, knows a thing or two about success. So does Rivera, actually, as the program has won 55 percent of its games since 1990. The Raiders were one of the toughest teams of the 1990s down here and made eight playoff trips before the drought hit early last decade.

Thursday, before the ebullient Cantu and his charges did battle with the District 32-5A leaders, Chavez spoke about what it takes to build a winner.

“The main thing is, you have to get the kids to play for you,” advised the chap who finally retired from coaching last season, moving into the AD job replacing retired legend Joe Rodriguez after making a masterful league title run with Hanna. “And it doesn’t always happen. But if the kids believe in you, they’ll play for you. And if that happens, you’ll do well.”

Chavez went on to intimate that Cantu, who came to town from Los Fresnos (with a season at Pace also on his resume), seems to be the sort of motivator and straight shooter that has what it takes.

So before we take a look at the domination that unfolded on the field, keep in mind that if Cantu ends up being the type of winner that the folks in Brownsville think he is, the future will be promising for Rivera. After posting just six victories the past four seasons, with three straight 1-9 disasters before a 3-7 count in 2009, Rivera still has an outside shot at the dance in 2010. The Mallosos have to get some luck, and they have to finish business against Lopez next week.

But the way they responded to a deflating loss, by hustling to the end, playing with pride, and avoiding the negativity and incriminations that so often accompany a huge loss in a huge game, it all adds up to something more than the score might indicate.

They got whipped fair and square, but at the end, there they were, bloodied yes, unbowed, yes again.

PANTHERS ON THE PROWL

As for Weslaco, how did the old beer commercial go? Oh…“It just doesn’t get any better than this.” Because if it does, the bi-district opponent (will it be the Bears or Raiders? Or someone else?) had better strap it on. The Panthers were dynamite from the onset, scoring on their first nine possessions and getting a TD on their last one, only to see a penalty nullify a chance for 70 points. In fact, penalties were about the only drawback to the Weslaco onslaught.

Other than that, Coach Tony Villarreal returned to his hometown with a vengeance, unfurling some diversity in terms of offense and getting another great effort from a defense that has not gotten enough credit so far in an 8-1 campaign.

They already have a share of the league title, and can sew it up 100 percent next week against Brownsville Pace, that is if the Vikings improve to 5-1 with a win over Los Fresnos Friday night. It may well be that by the time this story is a day old, the Falcons will have defeated Pace, meaning that 6-0 Weslaco would be assured of the 32-5A crown.

This program is in search of redemption in ’10, after last year’s 2-8 nightmarish trainwreck interrupted a four-year stretch that saw 33 wins times versus just 14 defeats. And they played like it, bludgeoning Rivera unmercifully.

Perhaps the most interesting note about the crunching triumph, aside from the way the Panthers came out to warm up, was the fact that they passed the ball like a 7-on-7 club in the first half, with senior Randy Lopez going 6 for 6 for 142 yards and two touchdowns. Passes to Weslaco are usually like whoopee cushions to a nun…eek.

So the warm-up routine….wow.

It started with the Panthers roaring out to midfield with 20 minutes to go before the opening kick, making a helluva lot of noise as Rivera quietly stretched and began to throw passes and get ready.

“We run this sh*t!” they bellowed, over and over again, not 10 yards away from the Black Pack. A few of the Rivera guys turned sharply to look at the situation, with the Purple Gang raising a ruckus and throwing in a few more choice, off-color cheers.

Like: “One, two, three…let’s kick some a*s!”

With that fine how-do-you-do in the books, the teams left the field at Sams Stadium. When they returned, Weslaco immediately began to put its money where its mouth had been, doing to the Raiders all the nasty things they had been crowing about doing minutes earlier.

Villarreal is a cagy vet, among the best at the game of psychology, so after his offense went to the skies like a McAllen High or Lyford, he just chuckled.

“I like to save things for later,” he grinned. “I want to protect what we have and what we are doing. Some teams will pass like crazy from the get-go, the first game, but not us. What would I do that for, so other teams can exchange game films and see how we do everything? Forget it.”

The Panthers came in with a grand total of 547 yards passing in eight prior contests, as opposed to a whopping 3,013 on the ground, pretty typical numbers from the man who learned his offensive moves from Slot-T wizard Bruce Bush. And Weslaco would churn out a healthy 332 against Rivera on 48 carries, using its revolving door of serviceable backs, always matching the ball-carrier with what the defense is offering and taking away.

“That’s the key, we look at what they give us, and we adjust on the fly,” said Villarreal, who was his usual fired-up self Thursday. Woe be unto the wayward referee who crosses his path with an un-Weslaco decision. “We noted that they were giving us the middle, trying to shut down Rojas on the outside. They overplayed the strong side and we figured, hey, let’s run the trap and let’s play action. We always want to go where the other team isn’t.”

The trap was a killer, with bruising senior Ryan Flores enjoying a career night complete with 170 yards on 12 carries, notching four touchdowns. This year’s Panther O-line has some size and is very athletic, especially center Larry Cardenas, a 215-pounder whom the coach calls one of the best in the Valley.

With huge junior tackle Miguel Rodriguez starting to look like a college prospect, it’s no wonder that the Panthers are once again cranking on all cylinders.

“They were giving us some pretty wide splits up there on the front line,” said Cardenas, as smart as he is mean. “So we ran the plays that would work against it.”

And yes, they ran well Thursday, but the early passes were something that Rivera surely did not plan for. Lopez, like Villarreal’s Weslaco QBs of the past several seasons, spends a good bit of his time handing off. But in Week 9, he was unleashed.

“We want to be able to pass in the playoffs, to open it up a little, because you have to if you want to compete,” said Lopez, who ended with 154 yards, including TDs to Aaron Burciaga and Matt Alvarez in the first half. “We know we can run the ball, and now people know we can throw it, too.”

Lopez added that Flores, who normally gets little ink in the wake of 1,000-yarder John Rojas, was a man possessed Thursday.

“He was running pretty fast for a big guy tonight,” said the quarterback, shaking his head. “He was hitting the whole quick, doing it all. It was like he was someone else tonight, but it was him!”

DETAILS, DETAILS

It ended up a blowout, but for one quarter it was the shootout everyone had anticipated it being. On the first halfway cool football night of the Endless Summer, Weslaco held Rivera to a three-and-out, then went off to the races.

The long-legged Rojas (49 yards, not much room) busted off a quick 22-yarder on the team’s opening march, showing his patented Shoulder Shake that signals a sharp lean and cut to come. Soon Flores, who weighs about 220 and reminds one of ex-Bengal Pete Johnson (that comparison provided by Rivera Coach Cantu) or maybe Mike Alstott of more recent vintage, banged 16 yards up the gut for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead at 7:57.

The Raiders, who came in averaging almost 20 yards per reception paced by one of the Valley’s best but most underrated passers, answered with a 5-play, 82-yard advance aided by back-to-back 15-yard penalties on Weslaco. J.J. Sanchez is accurate, has a strong arm, and a lot of poise in the pocket. He completed three balls on the Raider excursion and tied the game with a 12-yard dart to Joel Martinez at 5:27 of the first.

Back came the Panthers, averaging 44 points per game now, with a smart strike, going six snaps good for 73 yards and ending with a 48-yard rumble from the new star, Flores. Before that, a 16-yard aerial from Lopez to Burciaga had presaged the passing fancy to come. It was 14-7 at 2:12.

The True Passing Team then took over with Rivera…running the ball!?? What is this Monkey Business? Running back Alex Moran is a strong kid who relishes contact and hits the hole hard; he carried one for 15 and senior Andrew Alaniz added a 10-yarder, against the Panther defense that has led the league in yards and points (defensively speaking, but offensively too) all season.

Just then, as the safeties sucked up a bit to attack the run, Sanchez let fly with a perfectly thrown bomb to deep threat Richard Reyes, and the hookup (helped by a blown coverage, as Reyes was by himself and could have moonwalked in had he chosen such a gaudy and outdated tack) went 42 breezy yards for a 14-14 tie with 0:36 remaining in the wild first.

Now that the teams had played some role reversal, Weslaco got down to brass tacks with a 10-play, 84-yard journey, Rojas and junior Jonathan Montes each bucking for nine. But then, again it was a pass, and again Flores, grabbing one from Lopez and getting 22 yards down to the Rivera 44. On third-and-11, Flores caught one for nine, and then Lopez made a key fourth-down conversion with a gutty run into the teeth of the Rivera D.

The Raiders got excellent individual efforts from a number of defenders though as stated, they collectively did not stop the Panthers once all night. Little corner Martin Bermudez, all 150 pounds of him, made a dozen stops, sticking his nose into the pile time after time. Linebacker Marco Martinez, a strapping presence in the middle, was active all game long with 13 licks, while safety Luis Mejia threw his body into harm’s way consistently.

But when Weslaco is on fire, it doesn’t matter who throws themselves into anything, those mothers can score! To culminate the go-ahead drive, the Panthers got an easy one, 22 yards on the pass to a wide-open Alvarez at 7:23 of the second. You watch films of them running all week, and they play-action you to shreds, damn that Coach Tony!!

The teeter-totter was swinging Rivera’s way, and all it had to do was follow suit, keep pace. But the main difference with this year’s Weslaco team is defense, a unit led by some athletic kids who love to hit. There is junior end Jose Montiel, an impressive physical specimen who collapses with malice off the edge. Senior linebacker Aric Hernandez is among the leading tacklers every week, while defensive backs Servando Cruz (a deft junior) and R.C. Cervantes (a stylish shutdown corner) have enabled this unit to allow just 257 yards a night so far.

It would give Rivera way less, try 154 total. But the home side did not help its own cause, giving the ball away on successive possessions after Weslaco had gone up by 7. When senior Sabino Reyna pounced on a fumble at the Raider 26, Weslaco scored in one fell swoop, as Burciaga hauled in a 26-yarder from Lopez at 5:21.

That Rivera stumble bears a second look. Montiel had broken in to sack Sanchez (7 of 13 with a pick and a late knee injury in one of his rare off nights of 2010) for minus-7, but J.J. shot one for 37 yards to Andrew Alaniz. The topsy-turvy continued as Rivera then lost 14 yards after one of its many iffy shotgun snaps of the game, got a sideline-warning flag for another 5-yard debit, and then fumbled the rock away. We say with confidence that Rivera is on the comeback trail with a new attitude, but that sequence was so 2008, dude.

At any rate, 28-14 now and Danger Zone. On the very next Raider snap after the kickoff, Weslaco’s Cruz recovered a bobbled pitch and set his team up at the Black Pack 37. It took four plays to make Rivera realize that, as Eminem once rudely informed Moby…it’s over.

The Csonka-like Flores did the honors with a 30-yard touchdown run at 2:36, and Weslaco would add another log to the fire soon after when it held Rivera on downs at the 50 and got into the end zone for a 43-14 halftime lead. The final score was a 3-yard scoot from junior Lionel Anciso with 0:17 remaining, and by the way, it was set up by a 47-yard bomb from Lopez the Passing Machine to Burciaga, who caught three for 89 yards all told.

Weslaco would pound out a couple of long drives in the second half behind mainly second-team cats, while Rivera went nowhere fast with nine total yards in the final two periods. Sanchez, who had thrown for 1,784 yards and 19 scores in eight games, did not have many chances to get it going after the Panther blitz midway through.

He threw a pick to Cruz on the Raiders’ first play of the third, and Weslaco kept the ball for 20 plays before and after the errant ball. Though they have found the end zone a ton of times with quick strikes in 2010, the Panthers can also work steadily behind the hogs to play keep-away.

LAST WORDS

With only Pace left on the slate before a triumphant return to the playoffs, Villarreal spoke about his team’s effort in 2010.

“We have some seniors here who wanted to get back to doing what we do, winning, and they are doing that,” he said. “But we also have a lot of underclassmen who talent-wise may be as good or better than the older guys. Bottom line, you can’t make mistakes in a big game and expect to keep up. That was the key, when we were tied they put the ball on the ground twice and we were gone from there. You know, Rivera had the right plays called on those two but they didn’t execute.”

Cantu agreed, noting that in such a rare-air atmosphere, miscues are death.

“I think we made some mistakes against a very good football team,” said the upbeat mentor. “And they took advantage, you have to hand it to them for doing that. This district has been so crazy all year, you almost had to expect some crazy things tonight.”

After his group handed Pace its first 32-5A loss Oct. 15, it turned around and dropped one to a Los Fresnos team that had played horribly in losing to previously winless Hanna a week before. That’s the crazy Cantu is talking about.

Now the Raiders will have to hustle and hope, but these are two elements the squad has shown it can handle in 2010. In his first head-coaching opportunity, Cantu notes that he is proud of the job his kids have done so far.

“I have to say, despite what happened tonight, this has been an amazing year, since I first took this job February 18, the kids have been awesome. The fact that we are still talking about the playoffs right now, that says a lot about the progress they’ve made so far. I wish we had given you guys a better game to watch tonight, but all in all, man, this season has been, to me, the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”

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