Falcons rebound by crushing Panthers
The Los Fresnos Falcons didn’t take their loss last week to Corpus Christi Calallen very well and took it out on Weslaco High.
The Falcons dominated both sides of the ball, scoring touchdowns on six of its first nine drives as Los Fresnos destroyed the Weslaco High Panthers 57-6 on Friday night at Leo Aguilar Stadium.
"We’re getting better," Falcons coach Scott Ford said. "I think we played three and a half quarters. We’re about half a quarter short, and we’re going to use that as motivation to press forward and get better. We’ve lost some kids to injuries, but we feel good about where we’re at. "
The Falcons set the tone early on their first drive by marching 64 yards on eight plays, capping it off with a 4-yard touchdown run by Issac Nuñez.
Nuñez ended the game with 89 yards and three touchdowns, and teammate Bobby Zepeda caught six passes for 107 yards and three touchdowns.
"Bobby is one of the hardest workers on the team," Ford said. "He’s been with the program since he was in middle school, and he just hadn’t had a chance to start. He’s taken full advantage of that opportunity.
Zepeda has seven receiving touchdowns on the season.
Quarterback Emilio Hernandez was on the other end of the Zepeda touchdowns, and he finished 6-for-8 passing. Even linebacker Ivan Gonzalez got into the action, as he caught a 5-yard touchdown from Eric Castillo to put Los Fresnos up 42-0 at halftime.
The Panthers’ best opportunity to score during the first half came in the final two minutes as Weslaco High reached Los Fresnos territory for the first time and had a first-and-10 on the Falcons’ 26. Weslaco High ended up with a fourth-and-2 and handed the ball off to John Rojas, who was met by Leo Torres behind the line of scrimmage to end the scoring threat.
Weslaco High opened the second half with 17-play drive that reached the Falcons’ 14-yard line, but on fourth-and-8 the Panthers’ Aaron Burciago fell inches short of the first down.
Two plays later, Weslaco High put up its only points of the game when Sabino Reyna picked off Castillo and ran 10 yards for the score.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, that’s the closest they got to the end zone again for the rest of the game.
"When you spot a team 42 points, you’re not going to win very many football games," Panthers coach Tony Villarreal said.
Asked what positives he could take from his team’s second-half performance, he said "not very much."
Louie Vera covers District 32-5A football for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via e-mail at lvera@brownsvilleherald.com.
