MAVERICKS FOOTBALL GRIDIRON NEWS

Mavericks edged by the

Mission Eagles 21 to 14

Late rally falls short in the red zone

By: Conrado Perez, Jr. – Eagle Pass Sports Central

“Your best and only source for local sports news in Eagle Pass”

The C.C. Winn Mavericks varsity football team under the tutelage of head coach Eric Villaseñor currently sporting an overall season record of 1-2 continued their non-district portion of their schedule on Friday, September 22, 2017 when they journeyed to the Rio Grande Valley to battle against the Mission Eagles who ventured into this matchup with an identical 1-2 overall season record in a 7:30 PM non-district gridiron encounter at the Richard Thompson Football Stadium in Sharyland.

The visiting C.C. Winn Mavericks orchestrated a valiant comeback in the second half with a well balanced running and aerial production unfortunately seeing a potential game tying scoring drive come to a halt at the Mission 16 yard line where they were forced to turn the ball over on downs with only a couple of seconds left in the game enabling the Mission Eagles to escape with the 21 to14 victory over the Mavericks.

The home standing Mission Eagles took the early lead in this contest mounting six play 53 yard scoring drive on their first offensive series of the game capping off the drive with an 8 yard scamper to pay dirt by running back Horacio Moronta.  Rene Rodriguez tacked on the point after giving the Mission Eagles the 7 to 0 lead.

The Mavericks countered with a promising drive mixing the running game with their aerial assault to march down to theMission13 yard line where the drive unfortunately stalled and had to settle for a 34 yard Field Goal attempt but the kick was no good.

In the second quarter the Mission Eagles extended their lead with a 77 yard scoring drive culminating with a 58 yard gallop into the end zone by Damien Gomez with Rene Rodriguez adding the point after giving the Mission Eagles a 14 to 0 lead over the Mavericks.

Once again the gallant Mavericks tried to answer late in the first half with a long drive that started at their own 14 yard line and managed to drive all the way down to the Mission three yard line but on fourth down a quarterback sack at the Mission 15yard line kept the Mavericks from scoring as the Mission Eagles took the 14 to 0 lead into the halftime break.

During the halftime break head coach Eric Villasenor met with his respective assistant coaches and coordinators to devise some adjustments that would be employed during the second half of play and the plan was well executed by the Mavericks who came out of their halftime locker room rejuvenated executing a 7 play 72 yard scoring drive that was punctuated by a 12 yard keeper to pay dirt by quarterback Ethan Johnson who would wind up with quite a productive night both rushing and passing in this contest.  Mavericks’ placekicker Ernesto Fuentes split the uprights with the point after to narrow the Mavericks deficit to 14 to 7.

The Mission Eagles responded with a predominately ground oriented scoring drive from their own 25yard line that was capped off with a 5 yard blast to pay dirt by running back Andres Zamarripa with Rene Rodriguez converting the point after to extend the Mission lead to 21to 7,

The proud Mavericks countered with a huge aerial attack in the second half with quarterback Ethan Johnson utilizing the services of a trio of receivers with the likes of Jose Blanco, Luis Olvera and Isaac Villarreal to mount a 69 yard scoring drive with Ethan Johnson also handling the bulk of the yardage via the ground in this drive.  The scoring drive concluded with a 10 yard touchdown pass from Ethan Johnson to tight end Isaac Villarreal who hauled in the TD pass leaping high into the and fell on his back in the end zone.  Ernesto Fuentes booted the point after attempt right down the middle to narrow the Mavericks deficit to 21 to 14.

Late in the fourth period the Mavericks orchestrated what seemingly looked like a potential game tying 52yard scoring drive with Ethan Johnson was again connecting with his sure handed trio of receivers and also continued to wreck havoc carrying the ball on the ground for good yardage to sustain the drive.  The Mavericks with time winding down in the game managed to drive all the way to the Mission Eagles 16 yard line but Lady Luck was not on the Mavericks side on this night as the Mavericks were forced to turn the ball over on downs with just 5 seconds left in the game which enabled the Mission Eagles to escape with the hard fought 21 to 14 victory over the valiant Mavericks. Mavericks quarterback Ethan Johnson led the team in the rushing department with 98 yards on19 carries and had one rushing touchdown, Johnson also had a very productive night in the passing department completing 14 out of 18 pass attempts for 238 yards and tossed one TD pass.  Luis Olvera led the Mavericks in receiving with three receptions for a team high 107 yards.

The Mavericks defensive unit comprised by the likes of Ismael Villarreal, Isaias Gonzalez, Ricardo Morales, Alexis Morales, Miguel De Los Santos, Ernesto Villasenor, German Velasquez, Brandon Wheeler, Xavier Cerezo, Domingo Duran, JJ Garcia and company also have to be commended for their overall effort this game where they inflicted some punishing tackles throughout this game and in fact they lowered the boom on the starting Mission quarterback with a vicious bone rattling tackle that knocked him out of the game.

The Mavericks will now regroup and head to the Alamo City of San Antonio, Texas next  Friday, September 29, 2017 to battle against the Central Catholic Buttons in a 7:30 PM matchup for what will be their final non-district game of the season at the Bob Benson ‘66’ Football Stadium located on  1403 N. St. Mary’s St.

OFFICIAL GAME TEAM STATS:

MAVERICKS OPPONENT

First Downs                          N/A                             N/A

Att./ Yds. Rushing               31/125                       30/170

Yards Passing                     270                             111

Total Yards                         385                             281

Pass att./comp./int’s                        15/21/0                      7/18/0

Return Yards                                   16                               27

Punts /Avg.                           3/36.3                         3/39.3

Fumbles/Lost                       1/1                              1/0

Penalties/Yards                   N/A                             N/A

OFFICIAL INDIVIDUAL OFFENSIVE STATS:

PASSING:

#4       Ethan Johnson        14 comp.   18 att.   238 yds. 1TD

#10     Tony Flores                1 comp      3 att.   32 yds.

RUSHING:

#4       Ethan Johnson        19 att. 98 yds.   1TD

#10     Tony Flores                5 att. 13 yds.

#17     Gustavo Cabrera       2 att.            -1 yd.

#22     Fernando Zapata       7 att. 15 yds.

#36     Luis Rodriguez          1 att. no gain

RECEIVING:

#15     Luis Olvera               3 rec.  107 yds.

#17     Gustavo Cabrera     1 rec.      1 yd.

#22     Fernando Zapata     2 rec. 20 yds.

#23     Raul Solis                 1 rec.      5 yds.

#82     Isaac Villarreal         3 rec.    51 yds.   1TD

#88     Jose Blanco             4 rec. 84 yds.

?                                             1 rec.      1 yd.

OFFICIAL INDIVIDUAL DEFENSIVE STATS:

#2       Brandon Wheeler 3 tackles 1 assist 1 tackle for a loss 1 caused fumble

#3       Xavier Cerezo 4 tackles 1 assist

#5       Domingo Duran 4 tackles 1 tackle for a loss

#7       Juan J. Garcia 1 tackle 1 assist

#21     German Velasquez 2 tackles

#32     Ernesto Villasenor 2 tackles 1 tackle for a loss

#33     Miguel De Los Santos 3 tackles 1 QB Sack

#46     Ricardo Morales 2 tackles 2 tackles for a loss

#60     Alexis Morales 1 tackle 3 assists 1 tackle for a loss

#62     Ismael Villarreal 2 tackles 2 assists 2 tackles for a loss

#79     Ivan Martinez 2 tackles 1 assist

 

#92     Isaias Gonzalez 2 tackles 1 assist