The Great Escape: Weslaco battles with Bears, gets gutsy win
PHARR — It was as if the full moon was a stadium spotlight of its own — shining focus on both 6A football teams during a Friday night in the Rio Grande Valley.
If the walk to PSJA Stadium was a sign of things to come — with people illegally parked on the side of a road, a flurry of students chirping on their phones and the reverb of the announcers being heard on the outskirts of the neighborhood — you could just tell it was going to be a good night of football.
The Weslaco Panthers (3-2) visited the PSJA Bears (2-3) in the last non-district game of the season. The purple squad, though, clawed their way to a 31-28 victory.
"It was a 12-round fight," Weslaco Head Coach Roy Stroman said after the game. "The coaches did a great job, game planning on us. We did not play our best game. But we still found a way to get the 'W' and that's all that counts."
There was a sense of silence in the air after the game from both squads — one could've mistaken it for the humidity, that's how heavy it was. Near the Weslaco huddle after the game, Panthers were mum as certain athletes took the faults from some miscues during the game.
For PSJA and their fans, the crowd was trying to uplift their players during the school's playing of the anthem, but most of the Bears lowered their heads, not uttering a sound.
Some folks say non-district games don't count but that's not necessarily true. Weslaco, riding with a two-game skid, is arguably one of the best teams in the Valley, but yet they're still trying to prove it.
For the Bears, they continue to work on ironing out the wrinkles in their jerseys to show they can play some 6A football.
In the first quarter, a halfback pitch to PSJA's Grayson Cabrera led to a fumble recovery by Weslaco's Samuel Garcia to set up shop at the Bears' 18-yard line. Within the red zone, a keep to the left-hand side resulted in Christian Zamora getting the first strike of the game. After a two-point conversion punched in by Jacob Hinojosa, it was 8-0.
Still in the first, on a fourth and short, a quarterback sneak by Malachi Rodriguez resulted in a fresh set of downs for the Panthers with 3:50 left in the first quarter. On a 3rd and goal on the 3-yard line, the Panthers ran a sweep that earned Zamora his second rushing touchdown of the game.
After 12 minutes of play, it was 15-0 with the visitors leading and the Bears looking to stop the bleeding.
The Bears made their trek to the Weslaco 31-yard line, on a 4th and seven. PSJA's Gael Zamrano zinged it to Isaiah Garza who dodged a defender at the 21-yard line to get his first touchdown of the game. After the extra point, it was 15-7.
Weslaco's Rodriguez on the subsequent drive got picked off by Jose Torres who ran it back to the 12-yard line. However, PSJA's Cabrera fumbled it for the second time in the game to give it back to Weslaco with seven minutes left in the first half.
On a 4th and 11, the Bears' special teams showed up to play as Jordan Palomin blocked a punt to set PSJA up at the 12-yard line after Edward Martinez got the fumble recovery.
The Bears narrowed the deficit as Zambrano slinged it over the middle to Jonathan Sauceda to make it 15-13 at the half.
Right out the gate, Weslaco came out fairly composed as they stopped PSJA on a four and out. Seth Moya, for the Panthers, was able to swagger his way off a short pass to get his first touchdown of the game for 64 yards.
There was a double-edged situation the Bears found themselves in after a fumble recovery by Max Gamboa. On their own 1-yard line, Weslaco's defense was able to clog all the gaps for a safety to make it 24-13.
It looked as if it was a "Bad News Bears" situation as Zambrano, quarterback for PSJA, got ruled out of the game after a scramble where he tweaked his leg. With backup quarterback Dylan Rodriguez at the helm, he threw it for 30 yards to Riley Limon to capitalize on a fourth down. With momentum on his side, Rodriguez lobbed it 12 yards to get Isaiah Garza his second touchdown of the game.
It was 24-19 after a failed two-point conversion by the Bears.
Unfazed, Weslaco's Zamora ran it back 97 yards for the score and his third touchdown of the game to give Weslaco a 31-19 lead.
Then the Bears swung back near the end of the third quarter as Rodriguez got his second touchdown of the game with a 7-yard throw to Cristian Montes to bring the score to 31-26 going into the fourth.
The Bears did have two more chances in the red zone to try to score and take the lead but were unable to. The best they were able to do was get a safety to bring it 31-28.
With the chance to tie, the Bears were unable to capitalize off of a 30-plus yard field goal as a loud "Clung!" could be heard off of the left goal post.
Some may argue that Weslaco should've breezed through this game, while others may say that the Bears are starting to look more complete prior to district play.
"We weren't playing Panther football," Stroman said regarding the second half. "... We knew that we weren't playing to our best, (but we) came down and just stuck to the game plan."
Defensively, there were some miscues on the Panther defense as this is the third game where they have allowed over 20 points. Asked how he felt about his team's clutch performance near the end, Stroman said that his team showed "resilience."
"At the end of every Friday night, anybody can beat anybody," he said. "It depends on how focused these kids are and how focused these coaches are."
Weslaco looks to extend their winning streak as they head to Edinburg to face Robert Vela (4-1) on Oct. 9. PSJA looks to bounce back against the Cardinals over in Harlingen on the same day.