The Cuero Gobblers beat the La Feria Lions, 83-20, in Bi-District on Friday. The 83 points set a single-game school record.
“I was extremely proud of our overall team effort. I felt our offense set the tone of the game in the very first drive and maintained that throughout. Our special teams played extremely well and executed in all phases of it. I was very proud of our defense as well,” senior Jace Gamez said.
The Gobblers opened with four straight runs by Davyon Varela. Varela scored on a 6 yard run, making the score 7-0.
The Lions got the ball. Tony Perez sacked Andruw Rivera for a 6 yard loss, but Rivera would extend the drive on fourth down, hitting his receiver for a 30 yards. He found Devin Sanchez to tie the score, 7-7.
The Gobblers responded. Jayce Guajardo found Walker Dietze in the endzone. The score was 14-7 with 5:28 left in the first.
On the Lion’s drive, Jace Gamez sacked Rivera. Rivera converted another fourth down with a 27 yard scamper. Then, he found Austin Vaughan wide open for a touchdown, making it 14-13.
Brayden Hernandez returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, extending the lead to 21-13.
The Lions benefitted from penalties to put them in Gobbler territory. The defense stiffened up and forced a turnover- on-downs.
Jaxxon Marie found Tony Perez for 32 yards, setting up first and goal. Salazar found the endzone on the next play, making it 28-13 with 11:28 left in the second quarter. Ka’Son Roy got a sack on the next Lion drive. They were forced to punt. Varela and Marie had 20+ yard gains to open the Gobblers drive. Then, on first-and-goal, Marie found Varela for a 2 yard score. It was 3513.
The Lions were in trouble. The Gobblers forced another turnover-ondowns. After a pass from Guajardo to Dietze, the Gobblers would strike again. Salazar scored a touchdown, from 10 yards out, to make the score 42-13.
La Feria went for it again on fourth down. Again, the Gobblers forced a turnover-ondowns. A few plays later, Marie found Conner Kubesch for a touchdown. The score was 49-13. La Feria scored on their next drive. Rivera found Larry Martinez for a 30 yard touchdown, making it 49-20.
Guajardo completed two passes to Dietze for 37 yards. He then found Hernandez on the end-around, who scored from eight yards out. It was 55-20 with :32 seconds left before the half. The Lions opened up the third quarter with the ball. The Gobblers defense forced another turnover-on- downs.
The Gobblers were rolling. Gavin Flessner scored to make the score, 63-20. La Feria fumbled the kick. Dominic White scooped it up and returned it 10 yards for the score. It was 69-20.
The Lions went threeand- out and punted.
The sub-varsity players took over and moved the ball downfield. D’zayvin Bonner scored from four yards out, making it 76-20.
J.R. Bishop recovered a fumble on the kickoff return and later intercepted a pass to end a Lion’s drive.
Christopher Mathis found Isaac Ward on an end-around to close out the scoring. The final score was 83-20.
“The majority of our defense is still very young and this was most of their first time in a playoff atmosphere. I felt like once our nerves settled down, we were able to execute the plan and we progressively got better each series. We finished the game by holding them scoreless in the second half and that’s a huge boost going into next week,” added Gamez on the performance.
