September 12, 1998

Bearkats dismantle Wolverines 40-0

By OSCAR GONZALEZ JR.
The Monitor

RAYMONDVILLE _ Not even the lightning could stop the Raymondville Bearkats.
The Bearkats cruised past the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Memorial Wolverines 40-0 Friday night at Burnett Stadium.
The game was relocated from PSJA Stadium to Raymondville because of field conditions. The PSJA High/McAllen Memorial game on Thursday evening left the field in unsuitable playing condition.
The officials called a timeout halfway through the fourth quarter, debating whether the game should be called at that point. Raymondville Bearkat head coach Jim Hite didn't feel the lightning was close enough to end the game at that point, however.
``What lightning?'' Hite said. ``Coach (Eddie) Pacheco and I decided that the lightning should be in the vicinity before calling the game, not 40 miles in the Gulf (of Mexico.)''
The Bearkats provided quite a light show themselves. The 'Kats racked up 430 yards total offense, 365 of which came on the ground.
Running back Jaime Montemayor collected 145 yards on 14 carries for the Bearkats.
The 'Kats opened the scoring in the first quarter when quarterback Roel Garza threw a lateral pass to running back Hector Vela in a play that resulted in a 41-yard touchdown. The pass was the first offensive play of the game for the Bearkats.
On their next possession, the Bearkats marched 48 yards in five plays and capped the drive when Vela scored his second TD of the evening from 6 yards out. The Bearkats led 13-0.
Raymondville scored its third touchdown of the quarter when Garza took the snap and darted up the middle for a 25-yard score to make it 20-0.
But after going up 20-0, the Bearkats went sour for a quarter. Hite said it wasn't anything new, his players just needed a little boost after the second quarter.
``I've seen it 100 times before,'' Hite said. ``You start off too fast and then you slow down. We talked to them at the half and told them to just play.''
The speech worked. On the third play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Montemayor took a simple off-tackle play into a 70-yard score to move the Bearkats to a 26-0 advantage.
Running back Abiel Robles added a 39-yard score and Rene Valdez recovered a blocked punt in the Wolverine end zone to cap the scoring.
By contrast, the Memorial couldn't get anything going on offense. The Wolverines didn't record their first first down until early in the third quarter. The Wolverines totaled 109 yards.
The Bearkats travel to Los Fresnos (2-0) next Friday while the Wolverines take on Brownsville Pace.