Weslaco East advances to area round
WESLACO — Of all the aggressiveness and trick plays Alice mounted in the second half, Weslaco East was finally able to stop one.
And the man who made it happen was Wildcats linebacker Ace Caballos. The junior penetrated through the line and stuffed Alice ball carrier A.J. Perez for a minus three yards on fourth and 5 with a little over a minute left in the game that gave East back the ball. But more importantly, it officially secured a 21-14 Class 4A bi-district win to give the school its second-straight first round playoff victory and held off a scary Coyote rally. Weslaco East (10-1 overall) entered the game as heavy favorites over an Alice (4-7) squad, which was under .500 for the season. But as Alice proved, this is the playoffs.
“We knew Alice would be tough,” Wildcats head coach Armando Cuellar said, who was also awarded the game ball. “When you’re in the playoffs, anything goes. Whatever records you may have, you throw them out.”
Weslaco East advances to the area round where it will meet Victoria East, which also won on Friday over San Antonio Jefferson. Preliminary time for the game is set for Friday in Javelina Stadium at the campus of Texas A&M-Kingsville.
But not before East survived a big second half that saw the Coyotes score 14 straight points in a span of a minute and a half late in the third quarter after being down 21-0. Alice got on the board on a four-yard run by Lucas Almaraz at the 3:03 mark of the third period. But then Alice followed that with a surprise onsides kick, which was recovered by Brandon Garcia. The Coyotes wasted no time and marched 49 yards culminated by a one-yard plunge by Perez to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 21-14. Alice would’ve had the ball again for another possession after recovering a second consecutive onsides, but was called for interference on the play after a Wildcat player attempted to faircatch the kick.
However, Alice got the ball back and engineered a productive drive, which included converting two fourth down plays, going as deep as the ‘Cats 18. But on fourth and six, Perez was picked off by Darek Martinez for the second time of the night avoiding a possible three-for-three fourth down conversions on the drive.
“We were on a cover-3, I had a cushion and saw the quarterback overthrow (the receiver),” Martinez said. “I felt happy for my team.”
Spending most of the second half on the field, the Wildcats still had to stop Alice one more time. The Coyotes managed to get one first down, but then were only able to get five yards on a pass before Ceballos sealed the game with his stop.
“We were tested, but our kids did what they had to do to earn this bi-district championship,” Cuellar said. “They were down 21-0, but they didn’t quite.”
After a fast first half, which saw East score in its only two possessions, Alice figured the only to make it a game was to be aggressive. So that’s the reason why head coach Chris Soza began to go for it on fourth down early and elected to go for an onsides kick in the third quarter despite there being plenty of time.
“We felt we could win the game if we played mistake free football,” Soza said. “I thought the kids played as hard as they could.”
On his birthday, Wildcats running back Aaron Munguia got a nice present with a playoff win, but not before giving the Coyotes a headache with 142 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns. The senior scored on a nine-yard run in the first quarter and a 5-yard scamper in the third quarter that put East up 21-0. After the game an array of family/friends sang happy birthday to Munguia, who inches closer to the 2,000-yard plateau. He stands at 1,970 heading into next week’s area round match. If that wasn’t enough, he even got a happy birthday wish from the scoreboard during the contest.
“My parents didn’t tell me,” Munguia said. “This was awesome, it was pretty neat. I didn’t expect it.”
