PSJA North, Brownsville Vets slated to duke it out Friday

By Jose G. Guerra
Special to the Advance

PSJA North continued on its path through the playoffs by defeating Victoria East 42-7 in the Region IV-5A area round of the playoffs. The Raiders will play Brownsville Veterans in a rematch of last year’s regional semifinals.

The Chargers and Raiders will battle it out Friday at PSJA Stadium in Pharr. PSJA North won last year’s game 35-15. Brownsville Veterans advance to this year’s semifinals with a 17-7 win over Corpus Christi Veterans.

PSJA North and Brownsville Veterans are the only two teams remaining from the Rio Grande Valley in this year’s playoffs. One will advance to the regional finals, the Elite Eight.

The PSJA North defense was dominant, much like it has been all season. The Raiders didn’t allow East to score until the fourth quarter against the North backups. PSJA North is 12-0 and has scored 554 points this season (46.2 points per game) while allowing just 52 (4.33 ppg) and has seven shutouts. In two games, their opponent has scored in the final minutes to end those shutout attempts.

Against the Titans, the vaunted PSJA North defense allowed just 165 total yards — the longest play from scrimmage being a 13-yard pass.

Raiders quarterback Ale Aparicio threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Markus Rendon and ran one in from 3 yards and PSJA North scored 14 points in each of the first three quarters.

Sophomore Ethan Guerra put together a brilliant performance, scoring four touchdowns and taking on a bigger workload with star running back Jason Montez sidelined with an injury.

PSJA North is now 25-1 over its past two seasons. Its only loss during that span is a 20-14 setback to Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial in last year’s regional semifinal.

Corpus Christi Miller 49, Edinburg Vela 28

Broderick Taylor, a junior, surpassed the 2,000-yard mark for the season, rushing for 274 yards and four touchdowns to pace the Buccaneers’ offense and end the Vela season.

The SaberCats finish the year at 10-2, their only other loss coming to PSJA North.

Miller gained exactly 600 yards in the win, also getting 239 yards passing from Trevor Long, who tossed two touchdown passes.

San Antonio Jay 27, Weslaco 14

San Antonio Jay improved to 10-2 on the season and ended Weslaco’s perfect season with a 24-17 victory over the Panthers.

Andres Sepulveda scored on a 25-yard touchdown run in the first quarter to tie the matchup at 7. He then threw a scoring strike to Jayden Garcia from 6 yards with two minutes remaining in the third quarter to close the deficit to 20-14.

Jackson Gutierrez made it 27-14 after his 23-yard touchdown run. Vela had the ball at the Jay 1-yard line with six minutes remaining but couldn’t score and turned the ball over on downs, leaving the score 27-14.

Brennan 36, PSJA 14

San Antonio Brennan won its ninth straight game and ended PSJA’s eightgame winning streak and season with a 36-14 victory.

Brennan took its first possession and went 60 yards in six minutes, capping it off with a 5-yard rushing touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

PSJA responded with a 7-play scoring drive, spanning 70 yards that ended with Jorge Alanis scoring on a 15-yard run.

After Brennan scored two more touchdowns and led 21-7, PSJA quarterback Jaime Lopez rushed in from 10 yards to close the gap to 21-14, but that would be as close as the Bears would get.

Controlling time of possession, Warren scored two more rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the final one coming after a PSJA loss on downs.

Other Matchups

In other playoff games it was Harlan 48, Harlingen 0; Pieper 38, Mission Veterans 6; Liberty Hill 62, Pioneer 35; Weimar 28, La Villa 6; Laredo United 58, San Benito 42 and Victoria West 56, Harlingen South 20.