By the Numbers: A tie for the ages

Gabe Villarreal and the rest of the Port Isabel Tarpons were confident.
A confidence some might have seen as being misplaced, especially since the Tarpons were facing Cuero in the third round of the 1994 Class 3A football playoffs.
Especially since Cuero had routed PI 63-8 in the same round of the playoffs the year before.
However, that confidence was well-placed as the Tarpons tied the top-ranked Gobblers 20-20 at Javelina Stadium in Kingsville and eliminated Cuero on penetrations, 5-3. Overtime hadn't been introduced by the UIL yet.
That monumental game is the focus of the latest installemt of "By The Numbers."
It was a victory that was based on a year's worth of preparation.
"When we were on the bus after the loss, we were already talking about playing Cuero again," said Villarreal, who was the offensive and defensive MVP for District 32-3A that season as a quarterback and linebacker.
The Tarpons scouted Cuero often in 1994, subscribed to the Cuero paper and worked on plays especially for the Gobblers.
And while that might have seemed a little like putting the cart before the horse, it wasn't, as the Tarpons had swept throught the regular season with a 10-0 record outscoring opponents 441-124 and leading the Valley in both total offense and defense.
"We were a very experienced team." Villarreal said. "We had 26 senior starters and we had been playing together since seventh grade."
The Tarpons dispatched both Orange Grove and Carrizo Springs by identical scores of 28-7 in the first two rounds of the playoffs to set the stage for the rematch with Cuero.
"They were a juggernaut," said Villarreal of Cuero. "They were going to be ranked in the national poll by USA Today."
However, the Tarpons put paid to that and gained a sweet measure of revenge.
The Tarpons got on the board first as Villarreal connected with split end Gilbert Verduzco for a 20-yard touchdown.
However, Cuero scored twice and took a 14-6 lead at the half. Later, Jimmy Gonzalez scored a third quarter touchdown to make it 14-12.
Cuero running back Jason Enoch scored his second touchdown of the game to give the Gobblers a 20-12 edge.
"We had to go about 70 yards and our offense did a great job," said Tony Villarreal, PI's head coach at the time.
Sophomore running back Jim Leo Ochoa went in from 10-yards out to make it 20-18 with 1:45 left.
What happened next became part of Tarpon football lore and legend.
"We called timeout to talk about what to do," Gabe Villarreal said. The Tarpons had been running the ball on the same count all night, but on the all-important two-point conversion, they changed the cadence.
"We had been going on one or the first sound," said Villarreal, who is now the linebacker and strength coach at Upperman High School in Tennessee. Villarreal played at Tennessee Tech, which is in nearby Cookeville.
"We went on four and we caught them leaning. They had jumped and jumped back. "
The ball went to fullback Jesus "Beta" Ramirez up the middle for the two-point conversion. He followed the blocks of running back Ed Francois, guard Edward Hernandez and first-team all-state tackle Roger Delgadillo, plunging into the end zone for the 20-20 tie.
Verduzco capped the win with an interception with 1:20 left.
"Nobody had ever given them a game all season," Tony Villarreal said. "Theyd taken care of their opponents by halftime. We were hoping we could wear them down and be close in the fourth quarter, and thats what happened."
said he received a call from USA Today a day or two later. The writer said USA Today had planned to rank Cuero at No. 8 in its national Top 10 high school poll and wanted to know if the Gobblers had indeed lost.
"Apparently they werent answering their phones over there in Cuero," said Villarreal, now the head coach at Weslaco.
The Tarpons celebrated a little bit on the bus back to Port Isabel, but Gabe Villarreal said it was soon back to business.
"We had to play another game." The Tarpons beat Bandera 24-11 in the next round of the playoffs before falling to eventual state champions Sealy 34-13.
Gabe Villarreal roomed with some of the Sealy players later on in junior college.
"They said, ‘That the game we played against them (PI) was the real state championship game.'"
The Tarpons ended that magical year 13-1-1 becoming one of only four Valley teams to win 13 games.