By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
Del Rio earned its first win of the season last week. Now, the Rams are looking for win number two.
Standing in the team’s way are the Laredo United South Panthers, the defending District 30-6A champions and a regional semifinalist a year ago.
However, this year the Panthers have found the going a little tougher. The Panthers come to Del Rio 1-5 on the season with their only win a 32-18 affair against Weslaco on Sept. 23.
While Del Rio opened its district schedule with a 20-7 win over Laredo LBJ, South lost a shootout against Laredo United, 35-25. Both teams will be looking for the win tonight, but a loss by South could spell trouble for the defending champs.
Kickoff for tonight is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Walter Levermann Rams Stadium. Tonight is also homecoming for the Rams with the introduction of the homecoming court candidates and the crowning of the new court taking place at halftime.
The team’s offense remains potent. Quarterback Luis Cisneros has already thrown for 942 yards and nine touchdowns, but he’s been picked off seven times as well. Of course the South offense wouldn’t be complete without a Benavides in the backfield, and Brandon Benavides returns for his senior season, picking up right where he left off last season.
Benavides has 615 yards and six touchdowns rushing. He’s rushed for 100 yards or more in three of South’s first six games. He also has 20 catches for 166 yards. As he goes, so does the South offense.
David Diaz is the team’s leader in receiving yards, hauling in 18 passes for 326 yards and two scores. Carlos Segovia leads the team in receiving scores, snagging 20 catches for 228 yards and five touchdowns.
South hasn’t been blown out in its losses. The 10-point loss against United was only the second Panthers’ defeat this season that wasn’t seven points or fewer. They also lost by 14 points to Harlingen, but their other three losses came by a total of 17 points.
Del Rio is looking to build off its best game of the season last week when they scored 20 points against LBJ and held the Wolves to just seven points and just 235 total yards of offense while picking off the Wolves four times.
It’s the defensive showing that should give the Rams hope. Against a potent LBJ offense that helped the Wolves enter the game 4-1, Del Rio shut down LBJ’s speedy pass catchers and kept the pressure on their quarterback throughout the contest. Players followed the scheme, correctly used their reads and followed through wild solid tackling throughout. That will be big against South as Benavides isn’t the easiest player to bring down and the Panthers pass catchers are quick and elusive as well.
Offensively, the Rams looked better. Quarterback Zack Taylor and Jovahn West were in sync in the first half as West racked up 100 yards receiving by halftime. Zane Hughes was used sparingly, but even he eventually broke through for one his patented huge touchdown runs to seal the win.
If Taylor has another game like that, and can additionally use his speed when he carries the ball, the Rams could make a long evening for the Panthers. For that to work, though the offensive line will need to give Taylor time. The junior QB was under pressure throughout the game against LBJ and Hughes wasn’t able to use the lanes that were drawn up. The line hasn’t played together much this season due to injuries, but now that the group is whole again expect to see a better look up front.
Panthers’ head coach Joe Coss, who has seen a lot of success since taking over at United South, summed up his thoughts regarding Del Rio in Thursday’s Laredo Morning Times: “They have a bunch of talent. They have a bunch of formations on offense and a lot of their skilled guys are on offense. With that many formations you have to open up your concept of how you’re going to protect and cover each of those formations,” Coss said. “On offense we pretty much are going to see a different type of defense but I’m confident that we’re going to come back and get a result.”
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
