But the lead was short lived as Vela Quarterback Nathan Garcia hit a wide open Justin Garcia in the end zone for a nine yard touchdown. Garcia had been struggling throughout the the first half thanks to some solid defensive play from both the Eagle Front Four and secondary.
“What I thought was most impressive was the line play both offensively and defensively,” said Head Coach John Campbell, “We were worried about controlling those and we gave up some sacks and we really haven’t done that much this year.”
The Eagles combined their offensive balance with the strong north-south running of Dee Andre Torres who had 16 carries for 77 yards. The Sabrecats made it a point to stop Torres and the Eagle running game in the second half and did just that even limiting the the throwing success of Luna and the Eagle Air Raid Offense. Luna finished the game 21 for 31 for 153 yards, one touchdown and an interception.
In the second half it was all Vela opening the half with a 72 yard drive that ended in a two yard run by Garcia with 6:48 remaining in the third.
After that the Sabrecat Defense was the difference in the game with back to back sacks on Luna and forcing the Eagles to punt.
On the ensuing drive, Luna completed a beautiful pitch and catch to Riojas with 2:11 left in the third quarter that looked like it would put the Eagles in business deep in Sabrecat territory but Vela safety Nick Enriquez stripped the ball, a ball that bounced around and must’ve been touched by ten players from both teams before brother Daniel Enriquez picked up the ball and ran it back 30 yards giving the ‘Cats great field position.
The Eagle Defense forced a missed field goal by kicker Austin Garza that went wide right, but Luna was intercepted and the scales tipped toward Vela advancing to the third round to face a tough Austin Westlake squad when Nick Garcia scored on a three yard TD run with :05 left in the third, Vela 28, EP 10.
“All good things have to come to an end. Our kids played hard. We just didn’t have it today,” said Head Coach Tom Gonzalez after the game, “The ball didn’t bounce our way. Too bad there has to be a loser. Our kids played hard and I’m really proud of the way they played all year. I love them to death and we had a good year. We were District Champions, Bi-District Champs and Area Finalists, so we did a good job here.”
When complimented on their seniors and all the work they did to end the drought and send the Eagles into the playoffs, Gonzalez had the following to add, “We have a lot of kids coming back on both sides of the ball. A lot of experience. Hopefully we can do it again next year and go a little farther.”
When asked about the Edinburgh Vela Sabrecats, “They’re a classy opponent. They have a lot of weapons. They played hard. They’re not undefeated for nothing. They’re 12-0 now, #1 or #2 in the Valley for a reason.. I think our kids stayed with them. We had our chances. I don’t think we were overwhelmed. I just think we had our chance and made many mistakes.”
The Eagle Pass News Gram caught up with Coach John Campbell after the game, “Obviously we’re pleased with the outcome. We like to say that the video is never as good as you think it is. It’s never as bad, so we so we’ve got to go back, watch the video, see what we did good, see what we didn’t do well. Fortunately we have a week to recover and try to get better as a team.”
We asked Coach Campbell about the youth on this team.
“We’ve got a good mixture of seniors, some seniors who were not in a dominant role who’ve kind of embraced it and a lot of young talent that’s coming up as well.”
When asked about our Eagle Pass Eagles, “We’ve been impressed with them all week. We had to confuse some blocking schemes so the offensive line could dominate in the run game. We were very impressed with the quarterback. Obviously the tall wide receivers presented some obstacles, some issues for us on the perimeter, but all in all I was pretty pleased with our defensive play.”