A.D. Ibarra

-Foster-Veteran's

 Memorial Stadium

It was one for the ages as our two youngest squads, the 7th grade Silver & Black Attack Memorial Mavericks and the 7th Grade EPJ 2000 Burnt Orange Blaze, an Eagle squad which showed that it possesses some serious speed at the skill positions with Carlos Luna, Ricky De Los Santos and Braulio Rodriguez contributing yardage in chunks going up against the three-headed monster of Omar Ramos, Fernando Zapata and workhorse Miguel De Los Santos of the Mavs.

These two squads were coming off a couple of winning streaks, the Mavericks were on a three game tear through both Laredo schools and Del Rio, and the Eagles were undefeated at 7-0 on the season, so something had to give.

Both teams scored on their opening drives with EPJ scoring on a Braulio Rodriguez run, then Mendoza took it in for the extra point.

The Mavericks answered with a TD run by De Los Santos who literally carried half of the Eagle 'D' with him on a prior play inside the five yard line.  The PAT was no good and the Eagles led 8-6.

The highlights of the rest of this game were either high school caliber passes, reverses or high-pressure, high percentage passes to extend drives as both defenses buckled down thwarting drives and big plays in this hard-hitting affair.

It was Mendoza who called his own number on TD # 2 with a Johnny Manziel-like dive into the endzone for the second EPJ 2000 score as New Principal Mario Escobar looked on in pride.

The PAT was no good as MJH Principal Vera Sumpter seemed to will her defenders to step it up as big Isaac Villarreal, Darrell Cantú, Dario De Hoyos, Jorge Contreras and Diego Ibarra corralled Ricky De Los Santos taking him down before reaching the goal line.

The Mavericks would get the ball first in the second half and capitalized on a halfback pass from Omar Ramos to Isaac Villarreal over two Eagle Defenders which landed squarely in Villareal's hands thirty yards down the field.

The Mavericks proceeded to drive into EPJ territory including a sweet pitch and catch from Reta to Fernando Zapata on a 4th and 7 to extend the drive before Ramos himself took it in for the score to make it a 14-12 game.

The Eagles scored quickly on a reverse to Luna who outraced the entire Mav defense to the endzone on a fifty five yard romp to paydirt.  Again the Maverick defense halted the extra point, 20-12, EPJ 2000.

This was the score through the end of regulation until 1:02 remaining in the game when EPJ took a page out of J.A. Tovar's playbook and delivered a picture perfect halfback pass of their own to pull away 26-12 before Isaac Gonzalez dove into the end zone for the two point conversion.  Then with :46 ticks left on the clock, Reta hit Villarreal in stride on a seventy five yard touchdown pass which caused everyone to remain on edge for the ensuing on-sides kick which was recovered by the Eagles.

Thus, the final game of the 2013 season went down to the wire and both Tom Gonzalez' and Eric Villaseñor's coaching staffs went away pleased and with high expectations for the future.