EDINBURG — When UIL realignment rolled around in February and the new-look District 15-5A Division I was unveiled, coaches and talking heads alike felt the eight-team league would be the Rio Grande Valley’s best shot at returning a team to the regional final round of the state playoffs in 2022.
The journey to secure District 15-5A DI’s four playoff spots up for grabs is shaping up to be a meat-grinder as action kicks off tonight with the RGVSports.com Game of the Week between No. 1 Edinburg Vela (3-0) and McAllen Memorial (1-2) at 7 tonight at Richard R. Flores Stadium in Edinburg.
“What we’ve been saying all along is that we expect this to be a very competitive district, and obviously we drew a good one right off the bat with McAllen Memorial. We’re excited for that opportunity and recognize the challenges that are ahead of us,” Vela head coach John Campbell said.
“There are no cakewalks in this district,” Memorial head coach Moses Patterson said. “Week in, week out, it’s going to be a fight. The best team and most prepared team is going to win.”
Both the Mustangs and SaberCats reached the regional semifinal round of the postseason in 2021 — Memorial at the Class 5A level and Vela in Class 6A. The SaberCats lead the head-to-head series 2-1 with a 40-8 win last season and a 40-21 victory in 2018. The Mustangs defeated Vela 33-22 during the 2019 season.
“There’s some familiarity between the two programs. We’ve been playing pretty consistently over the last five years,” Campbell said. “They do a good job and are coming off a very successful season. We know that we’re going to have our hands full, and as I mentioned before, looking forward to the challenge and it should be an exciting night of football (tonight).”
The SaberCats are 3-for-3 in scoring 50 points or more in their first three games to start the year. Edinburg Vela’s offensive line and backfield is filled with first-year starters, but that hasn’t posed a problem for the young group that has played up to the SaberCats’ standard so far.
Junior running back Jamal Polley leads a three-headed monster on the ground with 425 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 38 carries for an average of 11.2 yards per touch. Quarterback Bobby Garcia has run for 132 yards and three touchdowns, and has thrown for 158 yards and two touchdowns. Junior running back Dimas De Leon has added 193 rushing yards and three scores.
“We’ve been very pleased with their performance, and the exciting thing is it’s a young group so we’re able to see continued improvement almost on a day-to-day basis,” Campbell said.
McAllen Memorial’s offensive line and running backs, on the other hand, are an experienced group determined to bounce back against the SaberCats. Senior Max Alaniz-Choy has run for 457 yards and three touchdowns on 61 carries.
The Mustangs have dropped two straight, but the losses have come against teams ranked in the RGVSports.com top 10 poll in No. 7 Mission Veterans and No. 4 San Benito. The tough non-district schedule was created by design to have the Mustangs prepared to challenge for another district title and playoff run.
“Our message is always step-by-step, one week at a time,” Patterson said. “We put the schedule together in the spring. We knew it was going to be a difficult schedule with Brownsville Hanna, a perennial playoff team in 6A, same thing with San Benito — they’re a one-horse town, Mission Veterans, Coach (David) Gilpin and his staff do a great job year-in, year-out. We knew what we had to face this year to get us prepared for the long haul of the season.”
Check out District 15-5A DI stat leaders through the first three weeks of the season below.
DISTRICT 15-5A DI NOTES
— La Joya Palmview’s 3-0 start is the program’s best since the 2014 season, when the Lobos finished 8-4 overall. Running backs Eddie Peña (312 yards, five touchdowns) and Victor Luna (272 yards, two touchdowns) have led the Lobos’ offense, which has posted point totals of 30, 40 and 56 in wins over PSJA Southwest, Roma and Brownsville Lopez, respectively. The Lobos are slated to begin district play against McAllen Rowe (2-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at La Joya Pack Stadium in La Joya.
— McAllen Rowe quarterback Lance Salinas returned from injury last week to make his first start of the season and helped lead the Warriors to a 27-20 win over Sharyland High. Two drops on pinpoint passes up the seams on the Warriors’ first two drives prevented the quarterback from having an even bigger day than his 154 yards passing on 11-for-17 throwing, 59 yards rushing and two total touchdowns. After a close loss against Sharyland Pioneer to open the season, Rowe seems to be finding its rhythm at the right time.
— PSJA North mollywhopped its first two opponents to start the 2022 season but showed it can overcome adversity, too, during its 26-21 comeback win on the road over Laredo United South last week. The Raiders (3-0) have opened up the playbook and are averaging 140 passing yards per game to go with 333 rushing yards per game. If PSJA North is going to be beating teams through the air in addition to its punishing ground game, opponents are in for a long night when facing the Raiders.
— The top rushing tandem in the RGV resides in Rio Grande City (2-1) as backs Alexis Chapa and Victor Cardenas have been lighting up opposing defenses during the first three weeks. Chapa leads the Rattlers with 531 yards and four touchdowns on 54 carries. Cardenas is right behind him with 477 yards and six touchdowns. They rank No. 2 and 4, respectively, among RGVSports.com rushing yards leaders.
— Although McAllen High sits 1-2 overall, the Bulldogs’ offense is coming off its best statistical performance of the young season after hanging 437 yards of total offense in a loss against Mercedes. Sophomore quarterback Joaquin Valdez has shown promise during his two starts along with weapons Obed Alvarez (145 yards rushing, 206 yards receiving, four total touchdowns) and Christian Echazarreta (seven catches, 107 yards, two touchdowns in two games). The Bulldogs host PSJA North at 7:30 p.m. Friday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
— La Joya Juarez-Lincoln is winless this season but hung tough against PSJA Memorial and Donna North to open the year. The Huskies have an opportunity to play spoiler throughout district play as they open with Rio Grande City at 7 p.m. tonight at La Joya Pack Stadium.
VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL STATS & STANDINGS
DISTRICT 15-5A DI
Over Dist
Team W L W L PF PA
Edinburg Vela 3 0 0 0 159 34
LJ Palmview 3 0 0 0 126 69
PSJA North 3 0 0 0 116 41
McAllen Rowe 2 1 0 0 96 71
Rio Grande City 2 1 0 0 118 74
McAllen High 1 2 0 0 77 75
McAllen Mem. 1 2 0 0 64 102
Juarez-Lincoln 0 3 0 0 18 59
Team Statistics
OFFENSE
Team G Rush Pass Tot Avg
PSJA North 3 999 420 1419 473.0
Rio Grande City 3 1254 124 1378 459.3
Edinburg Vela 3 988 349 1337 445.7
McAllen Rowe 3 600 589 1177 392.3
LJ Palmview 3 891 270 1161 387.0
McAllen Mem. 3 760 194 954 318.0
McAllen High 3 359 553 912 304.0
Juarez-Lincoln 3 336 161 497 165.7
DEFENSE
Team G Rush Pass Tot Avg
Edinburg Vela 3 440 147 587 195.7
PSJA North 3 180 425 605 201.7
LJ Palmview 3 436 259 695 231.7
Juarez-Lincoln 3 473 313 786 262.0
Rio Grande City 3 615 423 1038 346.0
McAllen Mem. 3 609 444 1053 351.0
McAllen Rowe 3 586 479 1065 355.0
McAllen High 3 826 442 1268 422.7
Individual Statistics
RUSHING
Name G Att Yds Avg TD
A. Chapa, RGC 3 54 531 9.8 4
V. Cardenas, RGC 3 42 477 11.4 6
M. Alaniz-Choy, MM 3 61 457 7.5 3
J. Polley, EV 3 38 425 11.2 6
J. Montez, PN 3 60 372 6.2 2
E. Peña, LJP 3 28 327 11.7 5
V. Luna, LJP 3 20 272 13.6 2
A. Aparicio, PN 3 30 233 7.8 6
I. Mata, MR 3 27 199 7.4 4
E. Guerra, PN 3 24 193 8.0 1
D. De Leon, EV 3 34 193 5.7 3
PASSING
Name G C-A-I Yds TD Pct
Valdez, MH 3 35-72-3 492 7 48.6
Sotuyo, MR 3 37-73-2 423 3 58.7
Aparicio, PN 3 25-36-0 386 4 69.4
Reyna, LJP 3 18-29-1 223 2 62.1
Cortez, MM 3 9-26-0 194 3 34.6
Lopez, EV 3 13-25-1 185 3 52.0
Castillo, JL 3 18-51-4 161 1 35.3
Garcia, EV 3 10-16-1 158 2 62.5
Salinas, MR 1 11-17-0 154 1 64.7
Bazan, RGC 3 8-12-1 124 2 66.7
RECEIVING
Name G Rec Yds TD Avg
C. Tamez, EV 3 14 230 4 16.4
O. Alvarez, MH 3 15 206 3 13.7
N. Ramirez, MR 3 15 180 3 12.0
T. Villarreal, LJP 3 11 160 1 14.6
A. Espinosa, MR 3 13 151 0 11.6
D. Goodson, MM 3 6 145 2 24.2
I. Willingham, PN 3 8 128 1 16.0
J. Arredondo, PN 3 4 113 2 28.3
C. Echazarreta, MH 2 7 107 2 15.3
C. Zavala, MR 3 6 105 1 17.5
SCORING
Name TD FG 1xp 2xpTotal
V. Cardenas, RGC 6 0 0 1 38
A. Aparicio, PN 6 0 0 0 36
J. Polley, EV 6 0 0 0 36
E. Peña, LJP 5 0 0 0 30
O. Alvarez, MH 4 0 0 0 24
A. Chapa, RGC 4 0 0 0 24
I. Mata, MR 4 0 0 0 24
I. Sotuyo, MR 4 0 0 0 24
C. Tamez, EV 4 0 0 0 24
Multiple tied at 18 – – – – 18
