MISSION — The Mission Veterans Patriots handed the Roma Gladiators their first loss of the season by winning a back-and-forth battle, 38-35, on Friday at Tom Landry Stadium.
The Patriots’ win creates tri-district champions out of Mission Veterans (6-4, 4-1), Roma (9-1, 4-1) and Sharyland Pioneer (9-1, 4-1). The district title is Roma’s first in program history, while Mission Veterans locks up its fifth district championship in seven seasons.
“When you’re going up against a team that’s 9-0, and I have tremendous respect for (Roma head coach) Frank Villanueva and his team, and that’s your ticket to win a championship game, you got to go to work and that’s what our group did,” Mission Veterans head coach David Gilpin said.
“It’s a tough loss because it went down to the wire, but we’re still district champions. Our kids and our staff did a great job and nobody can take that away from us,” Villanueva said. “We’ve had a great season and hopefully that will continue in the playoffs.”
The Patriots never trailed as quarterback Braden Luedeker went to work his arm and legs against the Gladiators, finishing with 162 rushing yards, 228 passing yards and five total touchdowns. He consistently scrambled to buy extra time to find receivers downfield, broke tackles in the backfield to keep plays alive, and fought for every yard gained on the ground with second half touchdown runs from 31, 7 and 18 yards out.
“We got a lot of great players, but Braden’s got the ball in his hand every play. For him to be great is imperative for us to be a great offense, and fortunately for us, he is great,” Gilpin said. “He’s done everything that we’ve asked of him. He’s such a competitor. That last drive we were up by a one-score lead again, but we needed to score to get up to two, and he said, ‘Coach, I promise you I got this.”
Jonathan Dubernay and Abel Lucio were on the receiving end of Luedeker’s two touchdown tosses. Mission Veterans running backs Pablo Lopez and Edward Martinez kept the chains moving on the ground for the Patriots.
Mission Veterans built a 17-14 halftime advantage and kept the lead bouncing between 3 and 10, answering back every time Roma scored until time ran out on the Gladiators.
Roma cut the lead to 38-35 with 2:23 remaining on a David Galan touchdown pass to Artemio Belmontes. With one timeout left, the Gladiators attempted an onside kick, but the Patriots recovered and ran out the clock to secure the victory.
Roma running back Isaac Lozano led the Gladiators with 171 yards and two touchdowns. Fellow running back Ediel Garcia finished with 83 yards and one touchdown on the ground. Luis Peña added a touchdown on a 26-yard run and hauled in a 25-yard pass from Galan.
The Patriots will play host to Valley View in the bi-district round of the playoffs, while the Gladiators will meet Gregory-Portland. Game details are to be determined.
