30-5A Notebook: Donna's win over Memorial is impressive

DONNA — Donna’s come-from-behind win over McAllen Memorial last Friday is even more impressive because of how the Redskins did it. No team had really slowed the Mustangs’ talented skill players all season until the second half of their game against the Redskins.

Donna did a strong job of containing Memorial’s big threats. All season the Mustangs’ receivers exploded for big yardage after the catch. Last Friday, Memorial mustered only 65 yards passing. Some of that had to do with Donna’s offense controlling the clock during the second half.

"One little pass and they could turn it into a long run," Redskins coach Manny Moreno said. "That is exactly why we wanted to make sure we tackled well and didn’t give up the big play."

The next day, Moreno said even he was pleasantly surprised when reading about how few passing yards his team gave up.

Memorial averaged only 6.5 yards per catch, and Donna picked off quarterback Matthew Kaufmann four times. The sophomore completed 10-of-16 passes.

"We always emphasize that we don’t want to give up the big play," Moreno said. "We don’t want to give up big plays to people. We want them to earn everything they get and that is the way we approach things."

Donna’s win knocked Memorial out of the playoffs.

PERFECT 10

After practice Monday, Sharyland defensive back Marcus Perez said, "It feels great" that the team is 10-0.

Second-ranked Sharyland completed an undefeated regular season last week when it defeated La Joya Palmview 61-21.

Perez, though, admitted it is difficult for any team to expect to finish the regular season 10-0.

"We just go game by game," Perez said. "That is what we wanted to do and that is what we worked in the summer for. We weren’t expecting it. We just went game by game. We took it one game at a time."

Rattlers coach Fred Sanchez stressed the difficulty of what his team accomplished.

"You always have that off game, that game you shouldn’t lose," Sanchez said. "It is hard to bounce back week to week. …These kids are resilient about keeping that focus and taking it one week at a time."

RUSHING KING

Partly because La Joya Palmview quarterback Javier Femat did not play in the last game and missed most of the team’s Week 9 game with an injury, La Joya High’s Lee Ramirez finished as District 30-5A's rushing leader.

Ramirez (1,386 yards) earned the rushing title by only eight yards ahead of Sharyland quarterback Scottie Meyer. After a 209-yard night against Palmview last week, Meyer finished with 1,378 yards.

LOOK WHO’S BACK

Rio Grande City’s Justin Ortega, who was thought to be out the rest of season, played in the Rattlers’ last three games. Ortega had been out of action since a Week 1 loss to Brownsville Pace but returned to play defense against Donna three weeks ago. Last week against La Joya, Ortega saw action on offense, rushing for 1 yard on two carries and catching a pass for 2 yards.

Peter Rasmussen covers District 30-5A football for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448 or via e-mail at prasmussen@themonitor.com.