Apaches dropped in district opener

LA GRANGE — The Gonzales Apaches traveled to La Grange to open up District 10-4A2 play against the Leopards Friday night. But after a couple of key mistakes including three failed fourth-down conversions, the Apaches lost their district opener 14-6.

“It’s millimeters, it’s fractions…that’s all it is,” Gonzales head coach Kodi Crane said of the game. “We tell our kids there’s no doubt, no question that’s a nine-point loss. We score nine more points we win the football game. We got to work nine-points harder, we got to do things nine-points better and that’s what it boils down to.”

Despite the six points on offense, Crane believed his squad did some good things.

Backed up to their own 12-yard line, the Apaches were gifted a first down off a third-and-long situation late in the second quarter. The Leopards were flagged for a personal foul, moving the ball up to the 42. Three plays later, the Leopards again were flagged, this time for a late hit, which extended the drive. Then quarterback Garrett Rickman began to move the ball, completing passes to Trevion McNeil and Luis Segura while also running the paper a few times to get to the seven-yard line. With a few seconds left until the half ended, the Apaches ran a trick play that involved receiver Matthew Velasquez-Banda throwing a seven-yard pass to Rickman. Rickman was short of the goal line, so on fourth and goal on the one-yard line, the Apaches ran a quarterback sneak for the touchdown to cut the lead to 14-6.

Rickman ended the night with 15 carries for 43 yards and a touchdown. Over the air he completed 12-of-20 for 65 yards. Meanwhile, Josh Calvin ran 13 times for 81 yards. Aaron Hunt had six receptions for 29 yards.

“We moved the ball better tonight against a good football team,” Crane explained. “We’re moving the ball better but we got to be consistent enough to finish drives and that’s what we weren’t able to do enough times tonight.”

After giving up 14 points in the first half, the Apaches defense was able to shut out La Grange the rest of the game. But even with second-half shut out, Crane said there were too many mental mistakes on defense.

“We didn’t tackle any good,” he said. “We used a timeout to politely encourage better tackling. Outside of that I thought we did some good things.”

Junior defensive back Colby Cox came away with an interception midway through the third quarter.

“What [La Grange] wants to do is they want to get you in a bad alignment and ‘big play’ you,” Crane continued, “and they never did that and we’re awful proud of that.”

The Apaches (3-3, 0-1) host Columbus (1-5, 0-1) Friday night at Apache Field with kickoff set at 7:30 p.m.