BY GREG SELBER

 

PHARR – Of all the possible final scenarios Thursday, this one was the most unlikely, so its completion in success for North was that much more vindicating. There were the much-maligned defenders, having allowed 158 points in four losses to date, up against the wall in the closing minutes, with two measly yards behind them and the rampaging Wolverines lining up defiantly in front of them.

Now was the time for a final statement, one way or the other, for a program desperately needing a win to rejoin the conversation about relevance in Valley high school football. So on fourth and goal with 1:37 left, the Coogs rose up and stopped P-SJ-A Memorial cold, getting the ball and the victory, 29-23. When Fernie Garza mishandled the ball, North’s Jacob Salinas was there to cover and the word came out loud and clear. Even after a trying start riddled with mistakes and defensive troubles, the Coogs, a three-time playoff combatant in 2007-2009, are not dead yet. In fact, they’re very much alive, as a 1-1 mark in District 31-5A means gobs more than a 1-4 overall record.

“We never lost faith in our defense, we know that they could do it,” said winning QB Joel Cuellar, who ran a solid show Thursday with a 7-of-11 night through the air, some nifty jukes and runs, and most vitally, zero turnovers. “We have all been making too many mistakes, last week we might have beaten the Bears but I had an interception. So this time we just needed to make all the blood and sweat from practice pay off. The fans have been asking, ‘Are these guys worth it?’ That’s what we had to answer.”

And North has indeed been competitive in 2011, losing in double overtime to Pace, by 10 to Donna, and three against P-SJ-A last week. The Coogs even led vaunted Sharyland at the half before getting blown out down the stretch, so this one against a solid Memorial club was going to have to be the one. No more close ones, no more maybes. This was it.

After rugged little bouncing ball Rollie Borrego (220 yards, three scores) hammered in from the 25 and added the 2-point conversion, North led by the eventual final count of 29-23 with 5:26 left in the game. The teams had gone up and down the field during the first two quarters, to the tune of 44 points (23-21, Wolves at the half) and 475 yards (253 for Memorial, now 0-2, 2-3). So who would have guessed that Borrego’s run would mark the only scratch of the second half?

Try Vince Ortiz.

The junior safety once again showed that he is one of the best tacklers in the Valley, with a dozen licks; his biggest of the night came a play before the pressure fourth-down snap late in the night, and on it, he came up hard to crack D.J. Martinez for a 1-yard gain with help from tackle Adrian Gonzalez. Getting the stop there brought it down to just one play, after the Wolves had ridden a money 49-yard completion from Manny Mancillas to star junior Jaime Borrego (Rollie’s cousin, did you know?) to get into position for the triumph. Ortiz knew what was going to happen, he says.

“We got the first win and we had to have it,“ he said afterward. “We showed what kind of heart we have, we made the adjustments after halftime and we stepped up at the end. We’ve been playing better, we wanted to come out here and make all the hard work pay off. To see the heart and motivation we had to stop them, that’s something special. We had to stop them, that’s all.”

 

WHO STEPS UP?

As stated, the first half was a track meet with neither defense doing much more than getting in the way. Memorial’s Borrego (eight catches, 196 yards) is a definite All-Valley candidate and went 49 yards for six on a short screen within the first four minutes, Memorial, fresh off a narrow loss to Pharr North in the closing minutes, started against the other North with a flourish.

But the Coogs, whose 47-44 loss to the Bears last week dropped them into a must-win situation too, responded with a 7-play, 75-yard drive behind its mammoth line led by senior college prospect Rudy Trevino, a 300-pound smasher. Borrego popped for a 20-yard gain and Tevin Brown added a leaping catch-and-run for 33, leading to a 16-yard touchdown from Cuellar to Mike Hinojosa, a spirited senior who has been saddled with injuries but is a key piece of the puzzle when healthy.

Later, the Wolves took the lead at 14-7 with 10 seconds left in the opening stanza as Garza ran 35 yards for a score. Memorial picked up 394 yards total, with 258 coming off the arm of Mancillas, who is coming on every week.

Back came North, with The Other Borrego accounting for 58 rushing yards and the tying 12-yard scamper on a 9-play, 73-yard march. The visitor pounded it all night with the home side relying on strikes by J. Borrego. But the Green also showed the ability to drive, following with a 78-yard march in seven snaps, a 33-yard gain and subsequent personal foul on North setting up a 2-yard punch from Martinez to make it 20-14 at 5:52. Your neck sore from this tennis match, too?

Then North illustrated why this season has been so promising but as frustrating, cruising to the go-ahead TD with 33 seconds left but somehow then allowing the Wolves to come down and kick a field goal with no time left. Actually, they got two tries at it, because after missing from 45, there was a reprieve as North ran into the kicker. The 39-yarder from Martin Rivera went through, capping a terrible last half-minute during which the Coogs gave up a huge gainer to Borrego and another personal foul, one of five major flags tossed at them on the night.

With Memorial ahead 23-21 at the half, it seemed like P-SJ-A all over again for North; for the Wolves, their 23 points was six more than last week’s final total in a loss against the Raiders that had slipped away in the final minutes.

In short, both teams needed to make a stand Thursday, with a wide-open race in parity-fueled 31-5A all but begging them to come on in from oblivion and take part.

 

OUCH, DON’T LOOK

And they both would like to find a deep hole in which to bury the film from the third period, like forever. North started with a motion penalty and a sack from Memorial’s senior LB Edgar Cisneros (10 tackles). Then Memorial was handed a gift when the punt snap went way over Reyes Espino and the Wolves took over at the North 18.

Early in the third, with the momentum there to take, they could not do it, as two hits from senior Keith Silva of North and an illegal block penalty led to a missed field goal.

North made one first down before a holding call forced a punt, which Borrego returned to the enemy 48. Again, however, Coach Gus Cavazos’ squad, somewhat challenged with injuries and youthful inexperience so far in 2011, could not convert. They ran two plays but fumbled, with sophomore linebacker Lupe Quintero finding the loose ball near midfield. Man, this is not that good.

Cuellar and Company advanced to the 28 of Memorial but they too missed a field goal, as the sharp pace and execution of the first half withered on the vine of ineptitude. Early in the fourth the Wolves threatened again, making it to the 35 of North before a holding call and fumble collapsed things. The turnover came on fourth down with Thomas Leyva, a linebacker who had been out with an injury, making his triumphant return to the lineup with the recovery.

So the second half had been brutal, each team shut out, and the no-so-running tally still at plus-2, Wolverines. With time wasting, the Coogs, who have not had trouble moving the ball this season, just in avoiding miscues at the wrong time, came up roses.

Cuellar found Hinojosa for a 26-yard gain and in four plays, that shutout business was a memory when Borrego blasted through the line, raced toward the goal, and dived in for what would be the winning six. The three-year starter broke 100 for the third contest in a row, following 119 in the loss to Donna and 175 last week against the Bears.

He’s all of 5-foot-3 but mighty stout, making his living snaking into holes behind the hosses up front and exploding into the secondary. Borrego has superb balance and will take a hit, often using the contact like an expert in judo, as energy to burn after spinning and twisting free from tacklers.

At this stage, Coach Roy Garza of North had to be wondering, as were all the program’s rooters, if it were all going to end in sorrow again, with the beleaguered defense heading back out to work.

But the Coogs had an ace to play, and came up with the thrilling goal-line stand that may have turned the season around. It didn’t come easily, as the cool Mancillas led his group down close to the win. But it came nonetheless. Fourth and two with the chips on the table, and North cleaned up.

“We needed this, no doubt about it,” said Garza, who’s built the long-suffering Coogs into a solid contender, one that set a school record with a three-deep playoff trip in 2009 before sliding into the pits of hell last year with a 1-9 performance. “The defense was able to bear down when it counted, they made several good stops in the second half, when it looked like Memorial was going to get some easy points.”

The veteran Garza knew coming in that despite having been within hailing distance to several W’s, his club had to get one Thursday. Had to.

“This was big, and now we can say we can go out there and know how to win,” he explained, as the Coogs get set for the annual City Cat Fight against Edinburg High Oct. 7. “We should have won a few of the games before this but we just made too many mistakes. Tonight we found a way to win and that’s sometimes difficult, because you can’t coach it. The kids just have to go out there and make plays when they need to, and tonight we were fortunate enough to make that happen. Now we can start a run toward the playoffs.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: edinburg north, Football, psja memorial