Rio Grande City wins wild one against pesky Palmview

LA JOYA — With less than 2 minutes remaining in Friday night’s game against Rio Grande City, La Joya Palmview quarterback Javier Femat started moving the ball the way he did the whole game, down the field. But this time Femat and company fell short at the 1-yard line, enabling Rio Grande City to hang on for a 48-45 victory in a District 30-5A game at La Joya ISD Stadium.

“The defense came through when they had to,” RGC coach Jesus Lozano said. “I know we had a hard time with number 10 (Femat) cause he’s a good quarterback.”

Femat finished the game with 31 rushing attempts for 226 yards and two rushing touchdowns. Senior Carlos Siller had 12 carries for 66 yards and four scores.

Palmview accumulated 482 yards of offense but still fell short to the Rattlers as they put up 344 yards of total offense.

The Rattlers were led by senior quarterback Angel Alaffa, who threw for three TD, all to different receivers.

“It was a total team effort,” Lozano said. “Offense scored the ball, we got the onside (kick) when it mattered and the defense stepped up.”

Palmview coach Manuel R. Flores appeared stunned as time ticked away from the clock and his team couldn’t get the ball into the end zone.

“Heartbreaker you know,” Flores said. “They (Lobos) left it all on the field and as a head coach that’s all you can ask for.

“We obviously saw a lot of positives and we just got to continue to grow on those and get better as a team. “I know the paper called it a must-win game but we feel like the race is still open.”