La Villa RB/DB Rey Perez picks up yardage against Ben Bolt HS on Thursday night. (HSSMImages)

(La Villa, Texas)-On Thursday night in the High School Sports Magazine’s Featured Game of the Week, the defending 16-2A DI champions, La villa Cardinals (5-2, 2-0) defeated Ben Bolt (2-5, 1-1) in a key District 16-2A Division I conference game, winning 38-22. “I was real concerned about their running attack and I was really stressing throughout the week but our defense did their job tonight,” said Cardinals head coach, Daniel Perez.

Cardinals quarterback Brandon Felix made Thursday night look easy in the first quarter as he broke loose for a 26-yard touchdown run to make it 6-0 with 9:54 left. On the ensuing kickoff, the Ben Bolt Badgers would fumble at their own 34-yard line and Cardinals DB Rey Perez picked up the pigskin and raced all the way into the end zone to make it 14-0 after the two-point conversion was good. On the Badgers next possession, on fourth down, the Badgers elected to punt and again, Perez found more daylight, racing down the sidelines, 44-yards, and was tackled at the six-yard line. He would leave the game with a rolled-ankle. “I was having a big night,” said Perez. “I’ll be back next week.”

La Villa QB Felix would take over with a beautiful 44-yard touchdown run to put the Cardinals up 20-6 with 1:06 left in the first quarter. With Perez sidelined, the Cardinal quarterback went to the air to find WR 6’1″ Juan Ortiz with touchdown passes from 44-yards and 15-yards to put the Cardinals up 32-6 at the half and never looked back. The Cardinals will travel to play Santa Maria HS (4-2, 0-1) next Friday night at Cougars Stadium.