Tarpons hold off Zapata

PORT ISABEL — Edgar Garcia considers himself a soccer player.

Yet, the Tarpon junior kicker will have his town buzzing about its football team as he drilled a 19-yard field goal with five seconds remaining to help the Tarpons escape with a thrilling 31-28 district- opening win on Friday night at Tarpon Stadium.

Zapata (2-4, 0-1) tried to freeze Garcia calling their final two timeouts adding more suspense to an electric atmosphere but Garcia said he was confident the ball would split the uprights.

"I’m not a field player," Garcia said. "I go out and kick every day so I had no doubt. It feels good to get the first (district) win. It’s big for us. It’s what this city talks about just football and nothing else really matters."

The Tarpons held off a fierce comeback attempt by the Hawks who had two huge scoring runs by quarterback Manuel Salinas who hit paydirt with 83 and 71-yard scampers. The latter scoring run tied the game at 28-28 with 6:12 remaining in the game.

Zapata head coach Mario Arce who nearly galvanized his team to an unlikely comeback after being down 21-7 at the half said he was proud of his team’s effort.

"It was a great game between two classy teams," he said. "We made some minor adjustments at halftime and we went out there and made some plays. We hung in there and fought hard til the very end."

Tarpon running back Juan Aguilera led the way on the ground with 107 yards on 17 carries while teammates Matt Martinez, Jacob Losoya, and quarterback Isaiah Martinez all pitched in with scoring runs.

QB Martinez also showed Port Isabel’s ability aerial attack with a strike to wideout Andrew Holland for a 66-yard touchdown that gave the Tarpons a 21-7 lead at the break.

Port Isabel improves 4-2 overall and the all-important 2011 district campaign is 1-0 for coach Monty Stumbaugh’s defending 32-3A co-champions.

"It was a heck of a football game," Stumbaugh said. "We knew they were good and tough. We executed at the end got few lucky bounces, we knew they liked running the football but (both) kids played great. None of them gave up. It’s huge for us to start 1-0, that’s one step we got down. We beat a dang good football team and hopefully we can be 1-0 next week."

Port Isabel’s defense also made big plays when they needed them the most including 4 sacks and two fumble recovers including the Miquel Ramirez’ recovery with 4:40 left in the game that eventually led to a Port Isabel game-winning drive.