By ALBERT VILLEGAS
Special to the NEWS
BROWNSVILLE, TX—Home or no home, the Rio Hondo Bobcats showed they will be one of the best football shows on the road this season.
While the Rio Hondo Independent School District continues to showcase Bobcat Stadium improvements on social media, the football team appears to be having another banner year.
Their 56-0 slapping of the Brownsville Pace Vikings last week at Chargers Stadium on the Veterans Memorial High School campus was a testament to that.
Both the RHHS offense and defense showed up to outplay a Class 5A team that was shut out only once last season. That goose egg, however, didn’t come until the sixth week.
The Vikings can thank a barrage of Bobcats for not scoring on the gridiron.
They earned six sacks, with Noe Leos (fumble recovery), Smiley Serrano, and Greg Soto getting credit for a full sack each.
Freddy Garza and Alex Trevino led all Bobcats defenders with 8 tackles each, followed by Matthew Sanchez and Serrano with 6 apiece.
The Bobcats combined to get in on seven tackles for a loss. They allowed less than 100 yards of total offense.
“We had a lot of guys who were starters for me last year, and some guys are new and we played against a Pace team that liked to run,” Bobcats Head Coach Rocky James said.
On the flip side, the Bobcats’ offensive machine steamrolled as quarterback Matthew Lopez led the charge.
He threw for 288 yards on 17-of-21 pass completions. Lopez had 6 touchdown passes.
Among the pass happy receivers Sebastian Gonzalez with 7 receptions for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Manny Perez had 4 catches for 85 yards and 3 scores, and Michael Lopez one TD of 30 yards.
On the ground running back Mario Lopez carried the football 13 times for 125 yards and one score. He averaged 9.6 yards per carry.
Teammate Ramsey Gonzalez had a couple of carries for 69 yards. He scored once also.
First-year kicker Hector Vargas was perfect on all 8 of his point-after attempts.
NEXT OPPONENT
The Bobcats will once again take their guidance spectacle on the road to Port Isabel, Friday.
This week’s opponent, the Tarpons, are very different from the Vikings, and Coach James knows this.
“Port Isabel has always been a tough opponent and we’re looking forward to playing them in their stadium,” Coach James said. “Our kids know that anyone can win on any given night so if you play a great game you have an opportunity to win.”
Port Isabel comes off a 36-21 victory against La Joya Palmview, which had a winning record a year ago despite missing the postseason.
The Bobcats last season beat the Tarpons by a 35-22 score. Port Isabel, however, won the previous four meetings by 48-20, 41-21, and 27-24 outcomes. The latter was a district game.