BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville Veterans Memorial safety Gilbert Trillo’s interception with five minutes left in the game ended any chance of a Brownsville St. Joseph comeback as the Chargers hung onto a 14-point lead.
The Chargers ran out all but 30 seconds of the final five minutes to pick up the 21-7 non-district win in the RGVSports.com Week 3 Game of the Week on Friday night at Brownsville Veterans’ field.
“It was an exciting pick,” Trillo said, it was his first interception of the year. “My team made it, the quarterback was scrambling out. It was just exciting, I loved it.”
Brownsville St. Joseph’s Ian Meyer scored from 1 yard and an onside kick gave the Bloodhounds late hope, but Brownsville Veterans’ defense and clock-controlling run game was the difference.
The Chargers forced seven turnovers on downs, four deep in their own territory. Trillo, Jaime Martinez, Eroz Pineda, Sergio Sosa and Miguel Selvera were some of the usual suspects around the ball, making plays for a stingy Brownsville Veterans defense.
“We knew coming in we had a tall task in front of us,” Chargers head coach JC Ramirez, this was Ramirez’s first win as a head coach. “The St. Joseph offense put up 60 and 71 points the last two games they played. To slow down a juggernaut like that is no easy feat and we held them to 10% of what they put out last game. For us that is a great accomplishment … Our defense really had to step up and grow up tonight.”
“We understood when you face an explosive offense like that, they are going to make plays,” Ramirez said. “We had to know that if they made a big play, we had to regroup and stop them on the next one. Our kids executed the game plan.”
Chargers junior quarterback Storm Montoya gave the Chargers a 21-0 lead with a 26-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter. Montoya also punched it in from 1 yard during the second quarter.
“I sleep very sound at night knowing I have all these wonderful kids playing on the offensive side of the ball and knowing that I have the coaches that I have on my staff, preparing them to execute the game plan,” Ramirez said.
Trillo put the Chargers on the board with a 10-yard touchdown during the first quarter.
“Super proud of our team’s effort,” Bloodhounds head coach Tino Villarreal said. “Obviously, when you play a school ten-times your size, you get butterflies to say the least, but I thought we took four trips to the redzone and only came up with one score, so we left three knocking on the door – and to beat good teams you have to be able to punch those in or come away with points. It was not for their lack of effort, we just have to do a better job of calling plays, so that is on me.”
Brownsville Veterans Memorial returns to action against Port Isabel at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Port Isabel. Brownsville St. Joseph starts its TAPPS Division II District 3 campaign at home against Victoria St. Joseph.
