Mission Veterans overcomes Juárez-Lincoln, stormy weather
LA JOYA – The rains came early and often, and so did the touchdowns for Mission Veterans Memorial on a soggy Friday at Pack Stadium en route to a 48-6 victory over La Joya Juárez-Lincoln to notch their second victory of the season.
The Patriots improved to 2-1 with the triumph over the Huskies, who dropped to 0-3, and is still in search of its first victory of the young season.
While both teams were nursing injuries and battling a steady rain for much of the game, both squads struggled in the early going with Mission Veterans taking a slim 7-0 first-quarter lead with 6:41 remaining on an 8-yard TD run by Patriots quarterback Santos Villarreal.
Despite a few offensive lapses and a few bobbled balls due to the rain, Mission Veterans’ offense opened up in the second quarter and didn’t let up.
Junior John García increased the Patriot lead to 14-0 on a 1-yard TD run with 9:43 left in the second quarter. He followed that up with an 18-yard run a little more than three minutes later to give Mission Veterans a 21-0 lead.
The Patriots scored once more on a 14-yard TD pass by Villarreal to go into halftime with a commanding 27-0 advantage.
Due to the rain, neither of the school’s bands played during halftime and made for an eerily silent intermission.
The silence was stifled when Mission Veterans resumed their scoring clinic in the second half.
Villarreal found junior Bobby Tovar twice during the third quarter on a pair of passes, but the Huskies managed to get on the board with a TD of their own sandwiched in between the Patriots’ scores.
Mission Veterans’ QB threw an 8-yard strike to Tovar with 6:33 left in the third quarter to make it 34-0.
Juárez-Lincoln showed signs of life and genius on occasional plays, but couldn’t string enough plays together to get the ball into the end zone for much of the game until a 28-yard pass by Huskies QB Edward García found senior lineman Felipe Otakara downfield for an unlikely score that cut the visitor’s lead to 34-6. Juárez-Lincoln’s kick for the extra point failed.
With less than two minutes left to play in the third quarter, Villarreal teamed up with Tovar once again. This time the senior QB hit Tovar for a 28-yard strike with 1:40 remaining.
Mission Veterans wrapped up their scoring feast with an 11-yard TD pass to García with 7:52 left to win their second game of the season.
The Patriots’ victory came on the heels of a 44-8 loss to Odessa Permian last week and the unfortunate loss of 10 Juárez-Lincoln players to injuries in two games.
Mission Veterans hosts PSJA North at Tom Landry Stadium on Sept. 19 and Juárez-Lincoln will host Edinburg Economedes at Pack Stadium.
