PHARR — Not many people outside of Brownsville gave the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers a shot on Friday against PSJA North.
The Chargers knew that, but they believed in themselves and took care of business Friday evening as they routed the Raiders at PJSA Stadium 45-28 to advance to the Class 5A Region IV championship game against Corpus Christi Miller at 7 p.m. Friday at Sams Stadium in Brownsville.
“Our kids made the decision that they were here to compete,” Brownsville Veterans head coach JC Ramirez said. “They were here to make sure we gave our best effort. I loved the way we set the tone early for ourselves. I told someone earlier that we were not here to prove anybody wrong, we were here to prove ourselves right.”
The Chargers are the first team in Brownsville to advance to the fourth round of the UIL playoffs.
PSJA North tacked on touchdowns in the final minutes to make the score closer after Chargers freshman Maddox Bond scored a 3-yards touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make it 45-14.
Brownsville Veterans senior Gilbert Trillo, District 16-5A DI’s MVP, had himself a day on both sides of the ball. Trillo finished with 105 yards on offense with four touchdowns and an interception on defense.
Trillo scored from 4 yards in third quarter to extend the Chargers lead to 38-14 after the defense came up with a stop.
“It was my team that is all I got to say,” Trillo said. “Storm gave me good balls, Sosa gave me a good ball and the line gave me good holes and I took them.”
The Chargers defense had another impressive performance by holding one of the best offenses in the region to only 345 yards, a good chunk of those yards came with the game realistically over.
Brownsville Veterans also were great on third and fourth down. PSJA North was 2-for-10 on third down and 1-for-6 on fourth down conversions.
“Defense played lights out,” Ramirez said. “We knew they were going to make plays, they are loaded with talent. Our mentality was one play at a time … super proud of the effort on defense and on offense.”
Brownsville Veterans went up 31-14 at half thanks to a 24-yard field goal by Roman Reyna after a bad snap on a punt gave the Chargers great field position.
The story of the first half was the explosive plays.
Brownsville Veterans quarterback Storm Montoya threw two first-half touchdowns. The first to Gerry Gomez on the opening drive and then the following drive to Trillo for a 39-yard score. Sergio Sosa also found Trillo for a 35-yard touchdown on a trick play.
Trillo and Ramirez praised Montoya’s performance.
“It surprised me that my coach came out with that shot, but it is not something I can’t do,” Montoya said. “I just have to make the throw. This is history tonight, but I want to make even more.”
Brownsville Veterans starts at the PSJA North 39 after kick catch interference and Storm Montoya hits Gerry Gomez for a 26-yard TD a couple plays later. Chargers strike first 7-0 w 10:57 to go in 1Q. #RGVFootball #txhsfb pic.twitter.com/WrNUAHG1ED
— bryan (@bybryanramos) November 24, 2023
Raiders running back Ethan Guerra scored two touchdowns in the first half. The first a 70-yard run and the second on an 8-yard run.
PSJA North answers w a 70-yard touchdown run by Ethan Guerra, XP is good. Raiders tie it up 7-7 w 7:30 to go in 1Q. #RGVFootball #txhsfb pic.twitter.com/Vz7TcXN0Jw
— bryan (@bybryanramos) November 24, 2023
PSJA North’s season comes to an end at 12-1 overall. The Raiders, who entered the third round as the No. 7 ranked team in the state, according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football’s Class 5A Division I rankings, fall one round shy of last year’s regional final appearance.
“(Brownsville Veterans) did a hell of a job. They played about as perfect a ball game,” PSJA North head coach Marcus Kaufmann said. “I was fully expecting them to mess up one time for us to be able to get back in rhythm again, and they didn’t. They were catching contested balls, those 50-50 balls weren’t 50-50 tonight for them — they caught all of them. Those kids came prepared over there and they did a great job. I told our guys they didn’t do anything wrong, they just played against a team that played a perfect ball game. That’s rare, but they did it and we didn’t come out on top tonight.”
Photo Gallery: Brownsville Vets wins a surprise victory over PSJA North in regional semifinals 45-28
