Big plays too much to overcome for Apaches

GONZALES — Apaches’ head coach Kodi Crane warned of big plays and sure enough that’s how the Navarro Panthers (3-0) were able to best Gonzales as the Apaches (2-1) dropped their first tilt of the season, losing 35-10 at home on Friday.

The visiting Panthers scored on runs of three yards, 38 yards, 43 yards, 33 yards and 45 yards. The three-yard touchdown score came after a 39-yard run got the Panthers into the red zone.

“They put you in a catch-22,” Crane said of Navarro’s offense. “You got to put people up there or they’ll just run lead for three yards every single time and as soon as you do, if they get an all block, they can go. And that’s what happened. Obviously I got to look at the film first to see what it was. Some of it was our knowledge of assignment and some of it was just execution.”

The Apaches couldn’t get things going until late in the second quarter when the team went on a 10-play, 59-yard drive that ended with a 22-yard field goal to cut the lead to 21-3. Crane believed his team in good shape, specifically the offensive line that opened up running lanes for their backs.

“Our offensive line started dominating the football game in the second half, well I think in the second quarter,” Crane said. “I felt like [Navarro was] tired right before halftime. They come out and were pretty fresh and the longer [the game] went the more our offensive line dominated the football game. I say that, but obviously they had big plays, they play a ‘big-play defense’ … whenever we were running that thing off tackle, we got the bulk of our yards going in the second half. That’s kind of what happened and Brandon Carrizales, Nick [Ramirez] and Nico Anzaldua came in and played extremely well tonight. We just got behind them big guys and let them push us to the end zones.”

Their lone touchdown was at the start of the fourth quarter, an 11-yard touchdown run by junior running back James Martinez. Martinez played a key role on the drive, carrying the ball five times for 44 yards.

After the game, as Crane was walking toward the post-game huddle, he overheard senior lineman Juan Licea advising Ramirez on what they had to do moving forward.

“I hear Juan Licea talking to Nick Ramirez about ‘we’ve got to [pay] more attention to detail,’ and that’s exactly what we’re thinking as a coaching staff,” Crane said. “So I had a really good feeling about that.”

Crane said the team made too many mistakes to beat a top-10 football team, which is what the Navarro Panthers are, according to the head coach, but hearing Licea vocalize the mistakes shows that the team know what they have to do to get better. And getting better is the goal for these next two road games as they take on Cuero this Friday and then Uvalde the following week.

“Our district sets up where if we continue to get better, we got a chance to do some amazing things in district,” Crane said. “All we got to do is get better. The only thing we can control is our football team.”

The Apaches take on Cuero (2-0) on the road this Friday, with kickoff set at 7:30 p.m.