Mercedes drives past Tuloso-Midway into area round

CORPUS CHRISTI — Early on it appeared that Mercedes quarterback Albert Chavez was struggling, as he was making bad throws and had trouble running the ball.

But once he got rolling, there was no stopping him.

Chavez shook off a bad start and accounted for 341 yards of total offense (236 passing, 105 rushing) and five touchdowns (three passing, two rushing) to lead the Tigers to a 35-14 victory over Tuloso-Midway in a Class 4A Division II bi-district game on Saturday night at Tuloso-Midway’s Warrior Stadium.

Mercedes, which has not won a bi-district contest since 1999, will now face Port Lavaca Calhoun at 7 p.m. next Saturday at Javelina Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Mercedes (8-3) is no stranger to Calhoun as the Tigers lost to the Sandcrabs 28-17 in Week Zero.

“It has been a long time since Mercedes has had a championship and we finally got one,” Mercedes coach Mike Uribe said. “Before the season started, one of our goals was to win a championship and what a better one than a bi-district title.”

After a slow start, Chavez finally got into a groove as he drove his team 98 yards to a 9-yard touchdown strike to Jonathan Ayala for a 7-0 lead with 3:12 left in the first half. Chavez had a hand in all 98 yards on the drive.

Tuloso-Midway responded to tie the game as quarterback Erik Alvarez connected with Ryan Wilcox for a 15-yard touchdown strike with 1:20 left in the second quarter.

The Warriors drove the ball 69 yards in just under 2 minutes. The touchdown was set up by a 55-yard pass play from Alvarez to Jordan Colmenero, which gave them the ball at the Mercedes 14-yard line.

The Tigers came out firing in the third quarter as they scored on their first drive as Chavez and Ayala hooked up once again, this time for an 18-yard connection to retake the lead 13-7 with 9:47 left.

But again the Warriors answered back as Alvarez found Wilcox from 20-yards out and took a 14-13 lead with 7:48 left in the third quarter.

That’s when Chavez kicked it into high gear and threw a 65-yard touchdown pass and ran in two more scores (30 and 5 yards) to help Mercedes seal the deal.

“Early on Tuloso-Midway was putting a lot of pressure on me defensively,” Chavez said. “But the offensive line started coming up big and our offense started clicking. Once we got going, I felt like my old self again and we came out victorious.”