For Balmorhea, who was making their first 1A Six-Man Division II appearance under head coach R. Vance Jones, the cards didn’t in their favor as Richland Springs defeated them by a score of 96-50 and captured their eight state title.
Balmorhea looked determined to capture their first title after jumping out to a 16-8 lead in the first quarter thanks to quarterback Marco Martinez finding Danny Vasquez and Marcos Mendoza. That lead would be the only one for them the rest of the night though, as Richland Springs behind the play of Walker Tippie would take a 24-16 lead late in the first and further increase the deficit as the game progressed.
“They’re a good football team you know. I’m not going to take anything away from them. They’re an excellent football team. We knew coming in we had to play a perfect game and we made too many mental mistakes ourselves and missed tackles and you can’t do that against them,” said Jones.
For Balmorhea though, the beacon of light from this game lies in the youth of the roster.
“They’re still learning and working, I only have one senior on the team…all my starters are back… this is only going to help us get better and hopefully with a little luck and no injuries next year we have a chance maybe to get back. That’s already our goal we set.”
Come Monday, a majority of the team will immediately transition to basketball and track and even though the individuals involved will focused on their respective sports, a return to the state championship will be in the back of their minds, a goal that’s quite feasible.
Junior Marco Martinez finished the day with 175 passing yards and four touchdowns. Sophomore Marcos Mendoza compiled 154 rushing yards and two touchdowns and junior Kyle Garcia was the leading receiver with 135 receiving yards and one touchdown.
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