(La Joya, Texas)-On a Thursday rainy night, the La Joya Coyotes (0-6, 0-1) fell to the defending 31-6A champions, Edinburg North Cougars (3-3, 1-0) 61-22 at La Joya ISD PACK Stadium. “I told our players that tonight, a district win means everything. What we learned in non-district doesn’t matter, only tonight matters,” said a wet, soaked, Edinburg North HS head football coach, Damian Gonzalez. “It was wet tonight too.”
The La Joya Coyotes gave up back-to-back pick six scores in the second half that put the game out of reach. “Our defense played great tonight,” added Gonzalez. Cougar LB Isaiah Rico scored his first pick-six and CB Oscar Villarreal added a 36-yard pick on La Joya’s next possession. On fourth down, the Coyotes punted and Cougars RB Rolando Ortega slipped past the La Joya defenders for a 75-yard punt return for a score.
The Coyotes faced adversity from the start. On fourth down, a bad snap over the punter resulted in great field position for the Cougars with 10:27 left in the first 1st quarter. The Cougars took over at the 31-yard line and a few plays later, Cougars RB Uylesses Melendez scored from 5-yards out to put Edinburg North up 7-0 with 8:58 left in the opening quarter.
The woes would continue for La Joya as they would fumble on the second play at their own 19-yard line. Melendez would add his second score of the night on a 10-yard run to make it 14-0.
On the kickoff, La Joya WR DeAndre Pitts picked up the ball and was tackled at the 1-yard line. Facing fourth down, La Joya had to punt and the ball stopped at their own 28-yard line. Pitts made up for that error with two touchdown catches for the night.
Cougar sophomore QB Tyler Ruiz picked up yardage on a run to the La Joya 16-yard line. On the next play, Ruiz spotted Melendez on a screen pass with 4:03 to make it 21-0 Cougars.
District 31-6A continues next with the Cougars traveling to face Mission at Tom Landry Hall of Fame Stadium on Friday while the Coyotes will travel to meet the PSJA Bears (3-3, 1-0) on Thursday night. (HSSMImages)
Edinburg North defeated La Joya HS in District 31-5A on Thursday night at PAC