PSJA North powers past upset-minded Pace squad

PHARR — PSJA North was too much for Brownsville Pace.

The Raiders defeated the Vikings 48-34 in a Class 5A Division II offensive shootout on Friday night.

The Raiders’ run game proved too much for the Vikings’ defense as they scored seven rushing touchdowns — five of those in the first half. North coach Bruce Bush, however, said the win was in large part due to the team’s defense.

“Well it would seem kind of funny to say that our defense won the game for us in a game like this, but we kept putting our backs up against the wall and the defense kept making turnovers,” he said. “We’ve had that characteristic, and I really don’t like it. But our kids played hard down the stretch.”

The Raiders (10-1) will play Eagle Pass (6-4) next week in the area round at a time, date and place to be determined.

Pace (7-4) came out firing in the second half, scoring 21 points to set the stage for a Cinderella comeback. But it wasn’t meant to be as the Vikings couldn’t convert down the stretch when it counted.

Aided by crucial calls — including a Pace touchdown in the fourth that was called back on an onside kick because of an illegal formation — the Raiders barely avoided a Vikings’ last stand.

“It’s pretty tough right now, but we have a lot of seniors and it was a good year,” Vikings coach Rene Medrano said. “We gave it a good run there in the second half. And, yeah, we did have some opportunities. We created some opportunities.”

Early in the game North running back J.J. Rodriguez bounced off Pace defenders for big gains. The senior back had 156 yards in the first two quarters — 65 percent of the team’s offense for the half.

Running back Alex Gutierrez and quarterback Noe Garcia were the other part of the driving force that put the Raiders up 35-13 as the teams went in to the locker rooms. The two Vikings’ scores came off a quarterback keeper by Rodrigo Tostado in the first quarter and a 79-yard kickoff return by Joseph Reyna in the second.

In the third quarter Pace fell victim to a bit of bad luck as it had the Raiders on the ropes.

Following a Tostado touchdown, an interception returned for a touchdown by defensive tackle Steven Vasquez was called back because the play was whistled dead. On another drive, the Vikings’ drove the length of the field to the North 3-yard line, but were unsuccessful punching it in.