FREDDY
GONZALEZ
| Staff Writer
RAYMONDVILLE — Rio Hondo
kept their district title hopes alive with a convincing 27-13 victory over
District 16-4A DI rivals Raymondville
on Friday night at Burnett Stadium.
“I thought we
played great,” said Rio Hondo
head coach Rocky James.
“Last week we played really well but we just didn’t get the points. Tonight we
played the same way and we got the points in and we played a very strong
defensive game. The defense was phenomenal all night long.”
The Bobcats
played another great game behind a solid defensive performance that forced
three turnovers in the game and kept giving their offense short fields to work
with.
Offensively,
quarterback Eli Pitones
led the way for the Bobcats.
The senior passed for 80 yards, rushed for another 52 and had a 60-yard punt
return.
“He played
tremendous, this was probably his best game of the year,” said James
of Pitones.
“Hats off to him. He works hard every day. At practice he works hard throwing
the ball and he does whatever we need from him.”
Running back
Marco Garate
had a tough time getting started against a great defensive effort from the Bearkats,
but the speedy senior still managed to rush for 86 yards and two touchdowns.
“Rio Hondo is good team
it’s very obvious,” said Raymondville
coach Frank Cantu. “Defensively they did a heck of a job, hats off to coach James
and his staff.
“They came
out with some new things and it took us a little while to adjust, but we feel
that once we adjusted, we felt there was nothing they could get us with, I was
that confident.”
Raymondville struggled for
most of the night after going down 13-7 and when the team did respond turnovers
kept the offense from gaining any momentum.
“Offensive we
couldn’t get going, and a lot of that’s attributed to what coach James
and to what he’s done, not just us, but to other teams,” said Cantu. “We love
the challenge and that’s the only way we’re going to get better is to play
teams like this.
“I just can’t
say enough about our team and I’m really proud about the way they played.”
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