Hut, Hut, Hike

Springer tosses four TD passes in Falcons’ 5-3 scrimmage win over Tarpons

By Roy Hess
The Brownsville Herald

PORT ISABEL — Jeremy Springer may soon have Los Fresnos football fans asking, “Brandon who?”
Springer highlighted Los Fresnos’ 5-3 scrimmage victory over Port Isabel on Saturday afternoon at Tarpon Stadium by passing for four touchdowns. He is replacing last season’s starting quarterback, Brandon Kretz, who led District 32-5A by passing for 2,746 yards and 28 touchdowns while earning 32-5A offensive player of the year honors.

Even though it was only the first scrimmage of the season for both teams, Springer, who played at QB some last year when he wasn’t starting at receiver, looked quite comfortable in the pocket. He led the Falcons to scores three times during their first series of 20 plays. Los Fresnos scored two more TDs on its third series, while Port Isabel tallied all three of its scores on its third possession.

All in all, Los Fresnos head coach Scott Ford said he was fairly pleased with what he saw from his team Saturday.

“Offensively, I thought our execution was pretty good, especially for a first scrimmage,” he said. “Defensively, we had a lot of intensity early, but I think we’re a little out of shape and it showed at the end as PI made some big plays on us. But overall, I was pretty pleased.”

On his team’s opening series, Springer, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound senior, tossed a TD pass of seven yards to Carlos Hernandez and then threw scoring strikes of 19 and 65 yards to Jorge Mata.

The Falcons’ reserves played on the second offensive series before Springer came back to pass for his fourth score on Los Fresnos’ third series. The fourth TD came on a swing pass to the left side to Esia Rivera on a play covering 4 yards.

Los Fresnos’ last TD came on a 12-yard run around right end by Luis Campos.

PI made the most of its final possession as quarterback David Alaniz passed for a pair of scores. The first TD went to Dustin Maddox for 36 yards and the second was a 75-yard bomb on a third-and-20 to Gilmar Flores. Alaniz scrambled to his left, dodged a couple of defenders and threw deep to Flores, who had gotten behind the pass coverage.

PI running back Nolan Nuñez broke loose 60 yards up the middle near the end of the scrimmage to give the Tarpons their final TD.

“We didn’t start out real well, but we finished up pretty good, so that’s what we’re taking out of this scrimmage,” PI head coach Monty Stumbaugh said. “Los Fresnos is a pretty good football team. They’re good for a reason.
“We knew we were going to learn some things today,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of questions and a scrimmage like this helps us. We got after it pretty well and we never got down. We kept fighting back and that’s what you like to see.”

Each team scrimmages again on Friday. PI will be at home against Mercedes at 6:30 p.m., while Los Fresnos will be in McAllen to face McAllen Memorial at 7 p.m.

rhess@brownsvilleherald.com

Posted on Aug 19, 06 | 12:00 am