La Villa wins 7-on-7 national championship

BRADENTON, Fla. — They were the unknown team heading into this weekend’s National High School Coaches Association 7-on-7 football championships.

Now, the La Villa 7-on-7 squad has earned the title of best in the land.

The fourth-seeded Cardinals beat hometown team Southeast from Bradenton twice to cap a 3-0 Saturday as they won the national championship with a 39-29 victory.

“It’s awesome.” La Villa coach Robert Perez said. “It (title) is something, as far as I know, hasn’t been done before in the Valley.

“To be able to bring this type of big achievement to the Valley is special.”

Spurred on by the passing duo of quarterback A.J. Garza and wideout Ricky Cantu, the Cards, a late invitee to the tourney, opened plenty of eyes en route to the crown.

“He was just phenomenal,” Perez said of Garza, who will quarterback the Cardinals’ varsity team once again this fall.

The team endured quite the rollercoaster ride to earn their prize.

After storming out the gates to a 5-0 mark during Thursday’s pool play, the Cards fell in two games on Friday.

Still, their five wins was good enough to seed them fourth in the nine-team field going into Saturday’s bracket play.

“We just put it (Friday) aside and went out and played,” Perez said. “And we picked up where we left off Thursday.”

La Villa opened the day by beating Crisp High (Georgia) 38-13, one of the squads that dealt the Cards a loss on Friday. From there, they took on Southeast and nipped them 30-29 on some late heroics from Garza.

Down 29-22 with about 30 seconds to go against Southeast, Garza fired a pass to the end zone that was snagged by Rico Garcia. Down a point, La Villa went for two and the Garza-to-Garcia connection was good again to give the Cards the lead and the win.

In the double-elimination bracket, Southeast was sent to the consolation side and found its way to the title for a rematch with La Villa. The Cards then capped the tourney with the 10-point win over Southeast to end their 7-on-7 season with a sparkling 60-8 record.

Interestingly, La Villa wasn’t originally scheduled to play in the national tournament.

After tallying several quality wins at the Texas 7-on-7 championships in College Station, the Cards inquired about qualifying for the national event.

All qualifiers had been played, Perez said, but a spot was open.

After lobbying and stating his case by listing La Villa’s 7-on-7 accomplishments, the squad got the invite to Florida.

Perez said the hard work the team put in just to get the tourney was well worth it. They held several fundraisers and accepted donations to fund their trip as the UIL prohibits school districts from participation.

La Villa is already looking forward to next season, as the club is already penciled in to defend its title at next year’s event.

Armando Garza is a sportswriter for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 430-6255 or via e-mail at armandog@valleystar.com.