In a game played at Richard Thompson Stadium last year, La Joya jumped out to a 31-0 third quarter lead over Sharyland before the Rattlers finally broke into the end zone in the fourth quarter to make the score 31-7; which as it turns out, was the final score of the game. Of course the Rattlers were coming off two hard fought overtime games when they took on the Coyotes last year and while they did lose to Brownsville Hanna the following week, they turned things around quickly after the loss to the Golden Eagles to win all six of their District 31-5A-II match-ups and their bi-district playoff game against San Antonio Somerset.

So far the Rattlers are pretty much replicating their 2018 season with a win over Brownsville Pace and a loss to McAllen Memorial. However while it took overtime for the Mustangs to pull out a win over the Rattlers last year, Memorial dominated last week’s rematch to win in a laugher by a score of 51-10. It’s hard to say at this point if that lopsided score is more of an indicator of how much better Memorial is this year than they were last year or how much worse the Rattlers are, but if Sharyland can bounce back and pull off an undefeated district season this year like they did last, nobody will care how badly they lost to Memorial.

As for the Coyotes, they’re coming off back-to-back wins against the Palmview Lobos (13-12) and the Roma Gladiators (30-6). Against Roma it was junior fullback Rudy Olivarez and junior running back Anselmo Davila who led the way offensively for La Joya. Olivarez ran for 120 yards on 10 carries and scored two touchdowns. One of those TDs was for 73 yards which gave the Coyotes a 16-0 second quarter lead. In total, Davila carried the ball 22 times for 103 yards and one touchdown against Roma.

Defensively, senior free safety Jacob Gonzalez had an interception while sophomore defensive back Salvador Carmona recovered a Gladiators’ fumble for the Coyotes.

So what should the Rattlers’ defense expect from the Coyotes’ offense? The fact that the Coyotes have passed for a grand total of only five yards so far this season should pretty much answer that question. But knowing what a team will do and stopping them from doing it are two different matters. Whether or not Coach Ron Adame’s defense manages to stop Coach Reuben Farias’ running game will go a long way towards determining which team is celebrating and which team is licking their wounds when the game clock ticks down to double ... Click here to read full article

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