Jerel Beaty
Staff writer
The JV Horses took care of business in their first action against unfamiliar foes in their initial scrimmage of the season. Devine romped to a 3-0 decision that could have been even more lopsided as an additional touchdown was negated by a penalty.
According to Coach Lon Cozby, his squad had their running shoes going full speed as the core of running backs took advantage of good blocking by the big-guys up front to shred Cotulla’s defensive scheme.
“Our running backs had a great night,” Cozby said to begin his post-scrimmage analysis. “Ryan Weinkam is fast and was able to show off his breakaway speed on our first score. Jeremy Steinbrunner and Enoch Hall both have excellent speed as well, and each had multiple runs over 30 yards. Steven Montes did really good things a fullback like blocking and he even added a few runs over 10 yards. Hayden Martin also ran the ball hard and added a couple carries over 10 yards. Alejandro Ramirez was able to use his speed to his advantage as well and he also added long runs.”
Weinkam scored from 70 yards out on the first offensive snap for Devine as Dylan Hinnant set the edge while Ivan Iglesias and Steven Montes had big blocks to open a hole.
“No one was going to catch Ryan on that run!”
Devine went through the air for their second score as Ramirez hit Lucas Hudson for a 35-yard touchdown.
“Lucas is a powerful addition to our team as he moved here from San Antonio. He is fast and has great hands.”
Ramirez found the end zone for the third score of the scrimmage as he walked it in from 11-yards after getting a couple of great blocks off Cole Reyes and Montes.
The fourth and final touchdown was called back on a questionable holding call, but that did not erase the excitement generated by Weinkam as he “juked a kid so badly he fell down” according to Cozby.
Coach speak
Cozby is always great about spreading the wealth when it comes to highlighting his players.
“Alejandro threw some really good balls. Cole ran a really good slant route, and we were able to get a quick 20 yards from it. Dylan Hinnant, Andres Padilla, and Carlos Talamantes split time at the tight end position. They all block really well and also run good routes. I have confidence in these guys that we have included them in the passing game. The last play of the scrimmage was a deep pass to Dylan who almost came down with an incredible catch.
Our line really held their own. Ivan and Johnny Davis are both aggressive and pull and open up holes for our backs. Andres Hernandez is our center, and his great snaps allow us to get in shotgun a lot. Bubba Gomez and Fabian Reyes at the tackles are tough and consistently move defenders. Chris Sanchez and Caleb Herrera are backups, and we do not miss a beat when they step in. Adrian Rodriguez is a big body that plays more on defense but is learning the tackle position and that will only help us even more.
For a first scrimmage we sure did have a lot of fun. Even know we had some mistakes; they were made full speed and aggressively. With Navarro coming up, that is exactly what we will need. This group as a whole is intense and we have speed and power.”