Mission Eagles open district play with win over Coyotes

In both teams’ District 30-6A opener, the Mission Eagles defeated the La Joya Coyotes on the blue turf at Valley View Tigers Stadium by a score of 20-15 Thursday evening.

It was the Coyotes that struck first as La Joya senior wide receiver Mariano Resendez caught a short pass from quarterback Irving Garcia on the Coyotes’ 30-yard line and ran the ball into the endzone to give La Joya a 6-0 lead with 8:24 remaining in the first quarter.

The Eagles responded with 5:57 remaining the first quarter when junior wide receiver Sebastian Gonzalez scored on a 49-yard touchdown pass from Mission sophomore quarterback Damian Gomez to make the score 7-6 Eagles.

Mission increased their lead to 14-6 with 1:15 remaining in the first quarter when senior running back Esteban De Leon ran the ball into the endzone from inside the five-yard-line.

After the Coyotes put three points on the board on a late second quarter field goal, the score at the intermission was 14-9 in favor of the Eagles.

Then with 5:33 remaining in the third quarter, La Joya signal caller Irving Garcia scored on a keeper to give the Coyotes a 15-14 lead. However, the Eagles retook the lead for good when they scored on Esteban De Leon’s second rushing TD of the game with only 2:30 remaining on the clock to make the final score 20-15 Mission.