By: Jonathan Salinas

LA JOYA – With only 34 seconds remaining on the clock, head coach Tomas Garcia and his Juarez-Lincoln Huskies witnessed their lead vanquish to one after quarterback Juan Puga placed a perfectly thrown ball in the corner of the end zone to connect with wide receiver Sergio Perez for a five yard score.

The few Bobcat faithful roared as Perez raised his arms in celebration.  However, there would be no tie for Rio Hondo Head Coach Rocky James; it was do or die.

“All along, I knew when we scored, we didn’t want to go to overtime in a non-district (game),” James said.  “If this was a district (game), we would’ve kicked the field goal,” James said. “At this point, we didn’t have an injury, so we just didn’t want to play overtime.”

After a quick meeting with coaches, the Bobcat offense lined up in hopes of taking the late lead.  Puga took the snap and quickly tossed to running back Rolando Vega who was quickly swarmed with red jerseys.  The home crowd erupted as the Huskies claimed their first win of the 2012 season over the heavily favorite Rio Hondo Bobcats, 21-20.

“Some people criticize me for scheduling PSJA Memorial and Rio Hondo (in non-district),” Garcia said after the game.  “Both are in the top 10. We need to play tough teams to get ready for our district. We got tough schools, so I know what type of football they play.  They’ve established winning cultures and we want to do the same.”

Establishing a winning culture won’t be hard when you have the running game at its best.  Pedro Reyes had a stellar performance Thursday night for the Huskies as he rushed for 169 yards including a 41 yard dash that gave quarterback Ramiro Garza the chance to punch it in from one yard out and give the Huskies a 21-14 lead.

“I’ve been telling everybody since day one, we’re gonna go as far as our offense takes us,” Garcia said.  “(Reyes) is one of the fastest kids in the valley and we expect huge things from him.  The same that we expect from him, we expect from Martin Diaz.  We got two backs that can break it on any given play.  The expectations are very high on those guys.”

The defense also made its share of big plays.

With the game tied 14-14 early in the fourth quarter, the Bobcats were in great field position after the Huskies special team unit botched a punt deep in their own territory.   Puga found a wide open Perez down the sideline and had a clear lane to the end zone until linebacker Joe Vargas popped the ball loose which led to a Huskies recovery and go-ahead touchdown in the ensuing drive.

The potent Bobcat offense was shut down through the first half by Huskies stingy defense as they only moved the chains three times and trailed 14-6.

Even though Puga was fairly successful as he went 18-22 with 160 yards and a touchdown, the Huskies defense stuffed the Bobcats late surge to preserve their one point victory.

“It was a gutsy call but I would have done the same thing,” Garcia said of the two-point conversion late in the game.  “There’s 30 seconds left in the game and they had gone for a two-point conversion earlier and were successful, so we knew what was coming.  Our kids did a great job of making that play.”

The Huskies will face their sister school Palmview Lobos next Friday at La Joya Stadium as both schools will be going for a two-game winning streak.  Rio Hondo heads back home looking to bounce back as they square off against the Sinton Pirates.