Apaches escape with win despite scoreless second half

CORPUS CHRISTI — During the regular season, one of the concerns the Apaches had was finishing out the first half of games. Friday night, with 42 seconds left in the second, Alyas Ramirez scored on a 71-yard touchdown run. He then returned a missed field goal as the clock was expiring 96 yards for another score, giving Gonzales the 26-7 lead at the end of the first half.

Those 14 points in 42 seconds proved to be the difference in the Apaches’ 26-21 win over La Grulla Gators, as Gonzales advanced passed the bi-district round.

“That’s the difference in the ball game,” Gonzales head coach Kodi Crane said, “without a doubt. We ended [the half] on a positive note for once and it helped us.”

Alyas Ramirez would finish the night with 246 yards rushing on 21 carries and two touchdowns. The Apaches as a team ran for 322 yards, with quarterback Tyler Hendershot rushing 18 times for 64 yards and a score.

“[Ramirez] did a great job,” Crane noted. “He plays with so much heart and passion.”

The offense seemed to click in the first half, although there were a few miscues such as being unable to convert a few fourth downs. Nonetheless, Crane was pleased with the team’s first half performance on all sides of the football.

“We made some really good stops in the first half defensively,” he said. “Special teams, we made some good plays. Kickoff coverage was 100 times better. Offensively we made some good plays and sustained some drives.”

After scoring two touchdowns in the last minute of the second quarter, Grulla answered midway through the third with a 12-play, 52-yard touchdown drive to cut the lead to 26-14. The ensuing kickoff was a pooch kick that hit the wind and caught Gonzales off guard, with the Gators recovering the kick.

“We did it to Robstown a couple weeks ago,” Crane said. “That kick into the wind, you got to understand that. We didn’t…that [was] tough.”

The Gators drove the ball down and ended it with a Fabian Anzaldua touchdown pass to Miguel Flores in the end zone, beating cornerback Aaron Hunt, to cut the lead again to 26-21.

After falling short on a fourth-down conversion, the Gators had the ball yet again, this time on their 37-yard line.

Grulla would drive down the field, getting to the 29 before Gonzales forced the Gators to a fourth-down situation.

On 4-and-9, Anzaldua threw to the end zone again towards Hunt, but this time Hunt came up with the interception, ending the Gators’ drive.

“I said to the kids, teams lost that game whenever they lose their poise and our kids never did that,” Crane said of the play. “They were focused and they understood that we got to go make a play and that’s what we did and there [were] several people that stepped up and made a play, so that’s what happened.”

The Apaches were able to force Grulla to using up their timeouts on what would be Gonzales’ penultimate offensive drive of the night, but they were still forced to punt, giving the Gators another chance at winning the game.

“[Grulla] stacked the box with a ton of people,” Crane explained. “They just put them all in there and brought them every play and, you know, they had a good scheme early, we were getting them out of there and getting extra yards and in the second half we just didn’t do that. We got to look at the film and figure that out and get better from it.”

The Gonzales defense stiffened, forcing the Gators to go backwards as Grulla went four-and-out, giving the Apaches the ball with no timeouts at 1:12 left in the game.

Hendershot kneeled the ball in victory formation, officially sending Gonzales to the area round of playoffs.

Even with the 26-21 win, Crane knows that there is still work to be done, especially with their scoreless second half.

“We just need to improve our consistency,” he admitted. “We got to be more explosive offensively and be more consistent every single play both offensively and defensively.”

Gonzales will take on Liberty Hill Friday night at Canyon Lake, with kickoff set at 7:30 p.m. The game is a rematch from last year’s area round where the Apaches lost 45-27.