Greyhounds celebrate first district win over Lobos

SAN BENITO — The San Benito Greyhounds notched their first District 32-5A victory of the season with a 36-24 triumph at home over the Lopez Lobos on a muggy Friday night at Bobby Morrow Stadium.

The Greyhounds (2-3, 1-1 district), coming off last week’s district-opening 38-26 defeat against Hanna in Brownsville, built a 26-8 first-half lead as San Benito quarterback Brandon Marquez rushed for 190 yards and three touchdowns during the first two quarters after spotting the Lobos (0-5, 0-2) an 8-0 lead. Marquez finished with 226 yards on the ground. Teammate Tommy Herrera, a running back, added 108 yards rushing.

"This is just a big, old monkey off our backs," San Benito coach Spencer Gantt said. "The players have been working really hard. We’ve played four really good football teams and we came up short in three of those games, so it was big for us tonight to get our first district win. Hopefully we can get on a nice little roll now, and we’ll see what happens.

"I’m excited about our ground game," he added. "It was definitely the edge for us tonight. We were going to run the ball as long as they stayed with their five-man box and kept giving that to us. I wanted to throw the football, but I’m going to take what the defense gives us and the run was there for us tonight."

Lopez QB Danny Perez tallied on a 9-yard run at the 5:04 mark of the first period, and Ricardo Hernandez added a two-point conversion run to account for Lopez’s early 8-0 advantage.

The Greyhounds then went to work with Marquez scoring on runs of 90 and 4 yards before the first quarter ended to put San Benito ahead 12-8.

During the second period, the Greyhounds added to their lead as Herrera burst up the middle for 34 yards before crossing the goal line at the 9:19 mark of the quarter. Marquez outraced defenders to the right corner of the end zone from 10 yards out with 24 seconds remaining in the half to make it 26-8 following Julio Martinez’s second extra point.

It became 33-8 when Anthony Lopez caught a 14-yard scoring pass from Marquez with 37 seconds left in the third quarter. Martinez booted a 30-yard field goal with 8:50 showing in the final quarter for a 36-8 San Benito lead before Perez connected with Hernandez on a 24-yard scoring aerial and Margarito Treviño caught a two-point conversion pass from Perez to pull the Lobos to within 36-16.

Perez tossed a 54-yard TD bomb to Aviel Vasquez as Lopez drew even closer, 36-24, with 2:50 remaining after Hernandez caught Perez’s two-point conversion pass.

Despite the late rally, it was another tough setback for the Lobos, who were coming off last week’s 20-16 loss to Rivera in their district opener.

Rafael Arizpe was a standout for Lopez, rushing for 130 yards on 15 carries. Perez completed six of 13 passes for 98 yards and two TDs, plus his scoring run in the first quarter.

San Benito defeated Lopez 42-7 last year when the two teams played in Brownsville.

The Greyhounds continue their district schedule at home Friday against Porter, while Lopez next visits Los Fresnos the same night.

Roy Hess writes for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him via e-mail at rhess@brownsvilleherald.com.