Lions Finish District Undefeated; Down Pirates

by Billy Watson/LFN

HIDALGO – The La Feria Lions have been riding an express train this season, dominating everyone despite a minor hiccup against Rio Hondo.

The Lions put together a 55-21 routing of the Hidalgo Pirates on Friday, November 2nd, as they completed their district campaign with a 4-0 record and 9-1 season.

The Lions will ride a bye week into their bi-district playoff game against the Beeville Jones Trojans on Friday, November 16th, at 7:30 p.m.

The last time the two teams met was in 2015 in a bi-district bounty in Laredo, a game which the Lions rode a dominant second half en route to a 67-31 victory.

Senior tailback and wide receiver Darius Hernandez said having the bye week will help the Lions gear up for the Trojans.

“The two weeks will not only give us time to prepare but also recover, especially coming off ten back-to-back games,” Hernandez said.

“It will give us time to study their defense and find loopholes where we can make plays to help our offense rack up points and make our defense’s job a bit easier.”

Senior Jacob Garza, one of the leading defensive players for the Lions, said the pride wants to be ready physically and mentally for whatever the Trojans throw at them.

“Doing those things, we feel we have a good chance of being successful on both sides of the ball,” Garza said.

“We know Beeville has a very good offense, but we also have a very good defense. The challenge for us is going to be how fresh we will be because most of our bodies are dinged up from the rigorous season.”

“I feel if all 11 of us (on defense) are on the same page every snap, there’s not an offense that we can’t shut down.”

The Lions’ last two playoff runs have been halted in the first round, but they hope to get past that barrier as they did last time the team played Beeville Jones.

“I feel that offensively and defensively this year we have accomplished things that we haven’t in a long while,” Hernandez said.

“To add to that, knowing this may be our last game just makes not only myself, but my teammates work even harder to make sure this season is one to remember.”

Statistics
The Lions’ defense has only allowed an average of 12.5 points per game, with the most they’ve given up being 21.

On the offensive end, the Lions score on average 31.4 points per game.