Port Isabel Vs Raymondville

[NewYorkYankee]

Good Luck to the tarpons winner of this game faces the winner of Cuero/Mathis game....GO TARPONS!

PI 42
Ray 7

[footballgal]

http://admin.onset.freedom.com/pictures/rgvsports/1195189863-picopy.jpg
The Port Isabel Tarpons look to win their seventh straight bi-district championship tonight against Raymondville at Tarpon Stadium.
Theresa Najera/ Valley Morning Star
Gut-Check Time
No. 10 Tarpons look for repeat performance against Bearkats
BY JARRET JOHNSON, The Brownsville Herald (#21 Diego Garcia)

Nov 15, 2007 10:58 pm


The Port Isabel Tarpons have had two weeks to think about losing the District 32-3A championship on their homefield to rival Rio Hondo.

Now they begin anew in a familiar situation: a shot at a bi-district championship. The Tarpons (6-3) will have an opportunity to win their seventh straight bi-district championship when they host a familiar foe in the Raymondville Bearkats (7-3) tonight at 7:30 at Tarpon Stadium.

Port Isabel handed the Bearkats a 37-13 loss on Sept. 7 in Raymondville, but that was early in the sea-son and now the Bearkats are riding a four-game winning streak and wear the District 31-3A champion-ship belt around their waist.

“They’re a better football team, they’re district champs,” Tarpon coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “Peo-ple are having a hard time moving the football on them right now. Whatever happened in Week 1 doesn’t matter, we’re playing a district championship football team.”

One of the reasons for Raymondville’s improvement since district opened is the play of Dustin Alejo. Bearkat coach Alex Leal chose to limit Alejo’s carries in pre-district play because of his small stature (160 pounds) but since he’s been in the backfield it’s been lights out for opposing defenses.

Some of the highlights include a 200-yard, four TD rushing performance against Lyford on Oct.12 and most recently a 130-yard, two TD night against Zapata on Nov. 2 to seal up the undefeated district cham-pionship.

“Dustin Alejo has done an excellent job in district and has been running very well,” Raymondville coach Alex Leal said. “We used him as a slot receiver early in the year to save him for district. Its one loss and you’re out now so there’s no saving anybody.”

The Tarpons have a pretty good back of their own in Nolan Nunez. Port Isabel will look to feed the rock to their star back who has amassed 1604 yards and 19 TDs in only nine games. He has rushed for over 100 yards in eight straight games with one of them coming at the hands of Raymondville in which he racked up 184 yards and two TDs.

“I tell you what, no one has contained that young man,” Leal said. “He’s a tremendous athlete so hope-fully we can gang tackle him because they do such a great job of blocking too.”

Anything less than a victory tonight would be considered a major disappointment for the Tarpons who are used to winning championships and playing what Stumbaugh calls, “Thanksgiving football.” Costly penalties and turnovers have hampered Port Isabel in their three losses this season. Stumbaugh hopes his team has learned from those mistakes.

“This is supposed to be a fun time, we’re focused ahead,” Stumbaugh said. “If you want to advance there’s certain things you have to do and things that you can’t do. Our morale is fine and our kids are level headed. Now it’s time to go out and play and try to get (bi-district championship) number seven.”


http://www.rgvsports.com/articles/district_1011___article.xml/championship_raymondville.html

[Hupernikomen]

I enjoyed my quick stay at S. Padre this past weekend. I was hoping to catch a P.I. game, but didn't know where they were playing. You all have a very nice area down there. I was curious if the people on the island go to P.I. or some other school?

[footballgal]

Originally posted by Hupernikomen
I enjoyed my quick stay at S. Padre this past weekend. I was hoping to catch a P.I. game, but didn't know where they were playing. You all have a very nice area down there. I was curious if the people on the island go to P.I. or some other school? This past week the Tarpons had an OPEN, so there was no Tarpon Football. :(

The few people that live on SPI, and have school children, do go to PIHS.

[Hupernikomen]

Originally posted by footballgal
This past week the Tarpons had an OPEN, so there was no Tarpon Football. :(

The few people that live on SPI, and have school children, do go to PIHS.

Yes, I didn't think there would be many school children living on SPI. That sure was some good sushi I ate over there :)

[footballgal]

Port Isabel takes down Raymondville, again
BY JARRET JOHNSON, The Brownsville Herald
http://admin.onset.freedom.com/pictures/rgvsports/1195281358-piraymondville.jpg
Port Isabel's Derick Schrank (89) scores a touchdown in the second quarter despite being hit by Raymondville's Jerry Ochoa (8) on Friday during their playoff game at Tarpon Stadium.
G. Daniel Lopez/The Brownsville Herald

Nov 17, 2007 12:32 am
PORT ISABEL — It wasn’t always pretty but the Port Isabel Tarpons did enough to win their seventh straight bi-district championship and move on to the second round of the Class 3A Division II playoffs.

Despite turning the ball over three times and committing 12 penalties for 85 yards, the No. 10 Tarpons (7-3) defeated the Raymondville Bearkats 28-7 at Tarpon Stadium on Friday night.

“It’s a tribute to the kids and the coaching staff,” Port Isabel coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “There’s a lot of tradition here and the kids want to continue that.”

The loss ends Raymondville’s (7-4) season after winning the District 31-3A championship. Starting quarterback Raul Salinas had to sit out most of the game after the first series because of back problems making things difficult for the offense.

“We lost our staring QB after the first couple of plays and we had trouble moving the ball on offense,” Bearkat coach Alex Leal said. “It hurts a lot because our defense played so tough. I couldn’t ask more of our kids.”

While Raymondville’s defense played tough, the Tarpons high powered offense finally broke through to win the game.

Port Isabel’s star running back Nolan Nunez (1757 rushing yards, 20 TDs) reached the century mark for a ninth consecutive game by churning out 153 yards and sealed the victory for the Tarpons on a 41-yard touchdown scamper with 4:14 left in the game. The clinching run was setup by quarterback David Alaniz who had one of his best performances of the season.

Alaniz and the Tarpons had trouble running their patented option all night long before he broke three tackles on an option play and stayed up long enough to make a pitch to Nunez who streaked down the sideline to effectively end the game.

The senior signal caller also had a nice game passing as he connected on nine out of 11 passes for 100 yards and two scores.

“He (Alaniz) did a great job and made big plays,” Stumbaugh said. “He played well tonight and made great choices.”

Alaniz’s cousin and fullback Roli Alaniz has received a larger role as the season has progressed and gashed a tough Bearkat defense for 63 yards and a plunge into the end zone in support of Nunez.

It wasn’t all roses for Port Isabel though. In what has become a disturbing habit, the Tarpons came out sluggish and allowed the Bearkats to stay in the game.

On the opening kickoff the Tarpons were flagged for an illegal block in the back and then turned around and gave up another 10 yards on a holding call on their first play from scrimmage. Later in the drive they would draw another penalty for five yards before eventually squandering the drive on an interception thrown by Nunez on a half-back pass gone wrong.

“I don’t think we were focused like we need to be,” Stumbaugh said. “I was very worried about the mis-takes because you can’t do those things and advance in the playoffs. When we’re right we’re a pretty good football team.”

Port Isabel will face Cuero (9-2) in the next round at a time and date to be determined.