CORPUS CHRISTI — Tied at 13 and facing a fourth-and-goal from the 5 midway through the third, San Benito offensive coordinator Steve Marroquin never questioned going for it, saving a play in his back pocket for the moment.
The play call was simple, dialing up a play-action pass for senior wideout Rodney Rodriguez, who was running a crossing pattern across the middle.
Cool and collected, junior quarterback Aaron Garza hit Rodriguez for the go-ahead touchdown, giving the Greyhounds their first lead of the game and never looking back en route to a dominating 38-19 victory over San Antonio Taft during a Region IV-6A DI area matchup Thursday at Buccaneer Stadium in Corpus.
“I was ready for it,” Rodriguez said. “It was to me or nobody. I knew the ball was going to come to me, and I was going to go get it. I just told myself to dodge everyone coming across and catch the ball and secure it in the end zone. It felt amazing. I felt that fire and that energy, and the team just rolled with it.”
The victory punches the tickets for the Greyhounds (11-1, 4-1) to the Region IV-6A DI semifinals for the first time since 2018. They’ll take on the winner of tonight’s game between Austin Westlake and New Braunfels.
Rodriguez’s touchdown was one of three scored by the Greyhounds during the second half. Junior running back Fabian Garcia exploded for a 61-yard touchdown run with 8:58 left to make it a two-possession game.
Garcia iced the contest with 1:53 remaining, punching it in from 20 yards to make it 38-19 with 1:53 left. The junior workhorse finished with 32 carries for 313 yards and four touchdowns.
“He’s a tremendous young man,” Marroquin said. “He’s the ideal type of athlete that any coach would want. He puts in all the hard work. But honestly, it all comes down to our lineman up front. They did a heck of a job tonight, just like they’ve done all year long. We wouldn’t have been able to do this stuff without those guys up front. From the tight end to our O-line to our receivers. It is a team effort. When you have 11 brothers they’re hard to beat, and we were hard to beat tonight.”
Senior linebacker Mariano Garcia anchored the Greyhounds’ defense. His biggest play came with 7:13 left in the first, with Garcia chasing down Taft’s TJ Andrews and punching the ball out at the 1-yard line, erasing what would have been an 80-yard touchdown and giving the ball back to the Greyhounds.
Garcia recorded a team-high seven tackles, two tackles for loss, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery.
“The funny thing going into that drive is I told Mariano we were going to need a big play,” San Benito defensive coordinator Johnny Garza said. “Not surprisingly, that very next play he went and did that. He’s a great talent. He’s our leader on this defense. When he plays out there, he commands it from the other guys. He steps up, and if you want to be a leader that is what you have to do.”
Garcia’s forced fumble shifted the mentality for the Greyhounds’ defense, allowing just 150 yards of offense during the second half after more than 250 yards of offense allowed during the first.
The Greyhounds put their final stamp on the game during the final minutes of the fourth, with defensive back Peter Jackson intercepting a two-point conversion and running it back 99 yards for two points.
Defensive back Brandon Hernandez put the final nail in the coffin with an interception with 50 seconds left, the Greyhounds’ fifth forced turnover of the game.
“They do a good job over there at Taft scoring points, and they run a lot of formations,” Garza said. “We went back at halftime and made sure our kids were lined up correctly and knew what they were doing. They came out the second half and our kids were ready. Coach (Josh) Perez at Taft does a good job of getting his players the ball. We made some adjustments on certain players, so once we saw them in certain formations we knew what they were doing. Our guys teed off of that and they played well.”
