WEB EXCLUSIVE: Bobcats dominant in St. Joseph scrimmage

(Photo by Justin Tijerina) The Rio Hondo Bobcats looked impressive in their first scrimmage of the season on Friday, Aug. 15, against St. Joseph.

(Photo by Justin Tijerina)
The Rio Hondo Bobcats looked impressive in their first scrimmage of the season on Friday, Aug. 15, against St. Joseph.

By ARMANDO GARZA
Special to the NEWS

RIO HONDO – One team was consistent on offense, tenacious on defense and possessed a genuine swagger.

The other, not so much.

In what was a terrific first dress rehearsal, Rio Hondo for the most part dominated a youthful Brownsville St. Joseph team as the Bobcats cruised over the Bloodhounds on Friday night at Bobcat Stadium.

The squads began with a controlled portion of 20 plays each with the starters followed by 15 plays with the second-stringers. In its 35 plays, Rio Hondo scored four touchdowns to St. Joe’s two. After a brief intermission, two live 12-minute quarters were played and the ’Cats again won handily, 23-7.

Head coach Rocky James, now in his seventh season, was happy with what he saw, especially defensively.

“The intensity was really good. I thought from the opening 20/20 our defense played really tough and they’re gonna be the strength of this team,” said James, now in his seventh year as head coach. “It was nice to see after last year not having a sound defense. They (St. Joseph) have a really good offensive team so there were different things to work on.”

From the word go, Rio Hondo senior quarterback Eli Pitones guided the offense more than adequately while the offensive line had good push up front to buoy a strong ground attack. Marco Garate (six-yard run) and Pitones (seven-yard run) accounted for the scoring on the opening series for the Bobcats, who will now compete in District 16-4A Division-II.

St. Joseph, which competes in TAPPS and is looking to replace several stars from a year ago, started off moving backward thanks to a relentless Bobcat rush. But the Bloodhounds finished strong as Kai Money found Jorge De La Garza on a nice 15-yard scoring pass to cap their first series.

On the second set of plays with a mix of 2s and 3s, Rio Hondo’s Roel Benitez, a converted linebacker, was the man early and often keyed by a 50-yard run on the first play from scrimmage and following that up with a 10-yard TD two plays later. Later, Andy Vasquez also scored on the possession for the Cats as the offense was clicking.

During its 15-play series, St. Joseph struck through the air again as Money connected with wide-open Sean Cantu on a 40-yard hookup to round out the scoring.

In the live portion, Rio Hondo’s defense made an early statement. With the Bloodhounds backed up inside their own 5-yard line, Money was sacked in the end zone for a safety and 2-0 Bobcat lead.

On the ensuing drive, Alan Alfaro found paydirt on a one-yard plunge. Later, Pitones tacked on a 20-yard scoring run and then was on the receiving end of a 38-yard TD from Josh Gonzalez.

Meanwhile, St. Joseph finally got on the board with a couple of minutes left when Dave Lapeyre snagged a six-yard strike.

Overall, James said several questions were answered, especially on offense, but there is still plenty of work to do.

“We got to see the offense do well,” he said. “We didn’t know how well we were gonna do offensively since they go against a really good defense every single day. The offense really stepped up big. Eli played very well and our receivers caught the ball well. The o-line, which was a question, did a great job. So we’re really happy with the whole thing.”

Rio Hondo will round out its scrimmage schedule at Valley View next Friday at 6:30 p.m.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2014/08/15/web-exclusive-bobcats-dominant-in-st-joseph-scrimmage/

4 comments

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    • Howard Johnson on August 16, 2014 at 9:28 pm
    • Reply

    RGV football is no longer interesting since Magledon does not exist.

    • horns17 on August 16, 2014 at 3:17 pm
    • Reply

    Texas high school football is back and not a moment to soon. New alignments and teams should make it very interesting.

    From reading the article I’m really impressed with St. Joe and their performance against a solid 4A team. Looks like that freshman qb from St. Joe may be a good one. St. Joe is really gonna be tough for the next 4 years in the TAPPS division.

    • Tacoma on August 16, 2014 at 2:44 pm
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    Great to have high school football back. Looks like St. Joe (TAPPS)fared pretty well against a potential 4A playoff team. A player to watch this year and for the next four years is that quarterback Kai Money from St. Joe. That kid has some great talent and for a freshman has tremendous upside. Good luck to both squads this year.

    • Leroy on August 16, 2014 at 9:36 am
    • Reply

    GO ‘CATS!

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