By EDWARD SEVERN, Special to RGVSports.com
LA FERIA — The La Feria Lions continued their unbeaten start to the season, moving to 3-0 with a 58-36 win over the Corpus Christi Tuloso-Midway Warriors in a non-district matchup Friday night.
It took only 1:03 for the Lions to score first after a big play moved them deep in Warriors territory. Quarterback Aaron Trevino carried multiple defenders with him into the end zone to put the Lions up 6.
La Feria struck again, this time early in the second quarter when Trevino found Brandon Villanueva for a touchdown pass. T-M immediately responded with a 62-yard touchdown reception from Ira Rivera.
The Lions answered a couple plays later. Trevino dropped a dime to receiver Joaquin Trevino for a 64-yard touchdown, giving the Lions a 20-7 lead. A good drive by T-M led to a quarterback sneak from Joaquin Trevino, cutting the lead to 20-14.
The Lions’ offense played at a really high tempo all night, getting to the line quick, snapping the ball early in the play clock and running the ball down the throats of the T-M defense. Trevino broke off another big run, this time 45-yards for the score.
“It has been a philosophy since I have gotten here, we want to be physical and fast,” coach Oscar Salinas said of the high tempo. “We are not a very big team, so what we do is we try to wear kids/teams out with our speed. We want to get out there and get on the line as soon as we can.
“I think we did good. I played good, and I made some good reads on my options. Our coaches get the plays to us quick, we have great conditioning and we get everyone set quick,” said Trevino, who was involved in six touchdowns on the night.
Another high-paced drive with big chunk plays led to a Zion Dickerson touchdown with 2:30 left in the half. An interception by Elijah Vela gave the Lions great field position at the T-M 32. A Dickerson touchdown with time expiring put the Lions up 38-14 at the half.
T-M came out of the half with a good first drive to cut the lead to 18, but La Feria responded again with a solid drive that resulted in another Trevino touchdown, this time an 8-yard pass to Julian Torres.
A big return for T-M set up a quarterback sneak for Noah Barrientez, who scored on a sneak during the previous drive. The Lions went on the march again, as running back Justin Rodriguez continued to run over the Warriors. Rodriguez, Trevino and Dickerson set up another Trevino touchdown, putting the game out of reach at the end of the third quarter at 52-28.
“They played really well. Offensively, obviously, we played really well,” Salinas said. “(Trevino) had a great game, but our total offense and defense played well. We did a lot of good things tonight. These kids are getting better every week.”
On the next drive, Elijah Vela came up with his second interception on the night and another Dickerson touchdown made it 58-28 early in the fourth quarter. T-M scored in garbage time to finish up the scoring.
La Feria could meet T-M again in the season, as they could meet in the bi-district round of the playoffs. The Lions will face another District 15-4A Division 1 school next week when they travel to face Beeville Jones.
“(T-M) gives us a good test. We got one more next week with Beeville. I guess it is a good barometer going into district and hopefully the playoffs,” Salinas said.
