By ALBERT VILLEGAS
Special to the NEWS
RIO HONDO—The Bobcats will continue to play the softest part of their football season, based on their opponents’ records, after winning by large margins over the Bishop Badgers and Santa Gertrudis Academy Lions.
They now face another struggling team, the Progreso Red Ants, at home on Friday. RH defeated Bishop 63-25 and Santa Gertrudis 45-3 last week. The two foes have a combined 3-12 record, and Progreso is 0-5.
“Progreso has really struggled, and the other teams are pretty good; really, sometimes it’s come down to injuries for the struggles that these other teams have seen, like Bishop,” Bobcat Head Coach Rocky James said.
This may be the calm before the storm, as the last two District 16-3A Division I games feature the Bobcats (3-0, 7-0) facing the San Diego Vaqueros (3-0 district, 6-1 season) and the Raymondville Bearkats (3-1, 6-2), two teams still vying for a district title.
“Getting this break before we play San Diego is really good for us,” Coach James said, knowing that RH is playing San Diego and Raymondville in the final two weeks of the district schedule.
“We’re not looking at San Diego yet. We have to take care of Progreso this week, but we know they’re on the horizon, including Raymondville, and we’re really going to have to be ready for those guys,” Coach James said.
The other two programs need RHHS to lose once or twice, and that doesn’t seem likely given the team’s offensive prowess so far.
The Bobcats are averaging 45 points per game.
In fact, some Rio Grande Valley Top 10 polls rank the Bobcats alongside Class 6A and 5A teams. They have been that impressive, beating bigger schools such as Brownsville Pace and Edcouch-Elsa.
“I think everyone looks at those polls, but really, ‘I’m just glad to see that the small schools are getting the respect they deserve, because many times you have a sub-5A/6A poll,” Coach James said. “I’ve seen some where we’re mixed in with the big schools; that just shows there’s good football being played among some schools, too.”
Last week, in their road win over the SGA Lions, quarterback Matthew Lopez threw five touchdown passes and threw for 231 yards on nine-of-16 completions. He threw three interceptions, but they didn’t seem to affect him.
Receiver Sebastian Gonzalez caught four TDs for 135 yards, and running back Mario Lopez rushed for 189 yards and a touchdown.
The wide margin of victory also gave the backups an opportunity to play under the Friday night lights.
“Like every game we play, we’ll put in our starters, and our goal is to build a lead and give our other players reps because we’re going to need them next year and the year after that. We try to get everyone in the game if we can’t,” Coach James said.
