Mission High comes up short against Gregory-Portland

ALICE — Maybe it won’t be that long until the Mission High Eagles are ready to appreciate what they accomplished this season. They won a district championship for the first time since 1993 and hadn’t made it past the first round of the postseason since 2002.

Late Friday night, however, all they were thinking about was how their season ended during a 12-7 loss on a muddy and chewed-up field drenched by heavy rains before and during the game.

“We accomplished a lot but we could have accomplished a lot more than we did,” linebacker Rudy Lopez said. “We just got beat. I think we should have beaten them but that’s the way it happens. That’s football.”

Except for one drive, Mission’s offense struggled the entire night trying to deal with the soggy field that took away much of the Eagles’ speed. But that one drive was a 17-play. 94-yard possession that took up 6:01 and ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Gilbert Gonzalez to Mike Reynoso, giving the Eagles a 7-6 lead.

Before that drive, the Eagles had only one first down from scrimmage and hadn’t advanced into Gregory-Portland territory.

“When you’re a passing team, rain is definitely going to hurt you,” Mission coach Mario Peña said. “But with us, we don’t point fingers. I’ve always said it from the onset, if we win together we fall together. And it was not our night tonight.”

Gregory-Portland, which advances to face Alamo Heights in the regional semifinals next week, re-took the lead on Joey Sanchez’s 34-yard touchdown run with 3:35 left in the fourth quarter. Just 70 seconds earlier, the Eagles had a chance to stop the Wildcats but Sanchez got 8 yards on a fourth-and-3, getting down to the Mission 34.

Sanchez finished the night with 153 rushing yards on 19 carries, and Nikki Smith chipped in with 84.

“I just thank God our kids had the heart they did to come back and score when they did,” Gregory-Portland coach George Harris said. “It wasn’t looking real bright for us.”

The Eagles still had one final chance to prolong their season after Joaquin Rios returned the ensuing kickoff 36 yards to the Gregory-Portland 34 with 3:22 left. But on a fourth-and-9 from the Wildcats’ 34, a wide-open George Niño couldn’t haul in a Gonzalez pass, giving the ball back to Gregory-Portland.

“I think we’ve accomplished a lot in one year but it hurts when you know that you had the opportunity to take it to the next round,” Pena said. “We had our opportunities and just did not produce when we had to.”

Brian Sandalow covers District 32-4A football for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via e-mail at bsandalow@themonitor.com