With his team nursing a 14-game losing streak heading into its showdown against Eastside, Navarro head coach Sebastian Velasquez said a victory would be a long time coming.
After a dominating performance on Thursday night, that time eventually arrived.
Viking quarterback Bryan Nieto rushed for 86 yards and two scores and added 102 passing yards and a touchdown as Navarro pulled away from Eastside for a 44-6 victory.
Before Thursday, Navarro’s last win came on November 27, 2020, against LASA.
Nieto said it was a special feeling to be able to celebrate a victory after a 22-month wait.
“It feels amazing,” Nieto said. “We haven’t won in so long, so it gives us momentum and confidence moving on.”
Final: Navarro 44-6 Eastside.
The Vikings can celebrate their first win in 22 months!#txhsfb @texashsfootball pic.twitter.com/71zNr6ktl1
— Adam Ogburn (@aogburn00) September 30, 2022
On the other sideline, the Panthers faced an uphill battle after their quarterback Ja’Lyen Jones suffered an injury in the first quarter.
Panther running back Ricky Medina slid over behind center and took on the brunt of the work after that, carrying the ball 23 times for 71 yards and a touchdown.
Eastside head coach Luis Becerra said the type of effort Medina exemplified on Thursday is what he wants to see in his Panther program.
“He showed a tremendous amount of fight and leadership to say, ‘I’ll put the team on my back, and I’ll carry the team,’” Becerra said. “I can’t put into words how great he did tonight.”
But Thursday night belonged to Navarro.
The Vikings started scoring early as it took just four plays for the them to find the end zone as Jose Molina took a handoff and went untouched around the left end for a 12-yard score.
However, Eastside quickly found an answer. Panther defensive back Jeremiah Sanchez picked off a screen pass and returned it 40 yards to the Navarro two-yard line. On the ensuing play, Medina barreled into the end zone to cut the Navarro lead to 8-6 after a failed two-point conversion.
The scoring barrage continued as Navarro needed just three more plays before Nieto rocketed up the middle for a 38-yard touchdown to extend his team’s lead to 15-6.
Afterwards, Navarro head coach Sebastian Velasquez said that Nieto’s touchdown following his interception on the drive before shows the progress his program is making.
“I’ve been here long enough to where if something like that [the interception] happens, we kind of go into the negative side and we start folding,” Velasquez said. “I kind of let the boys go and they figured out, ‘hey, we’re in this ball game, it was just a mistake.’”
There was plenty of joy on the Navarro sideline following the Vikings’ 44-6 victory over Eastside on Thursday. (Credit: Jacob Anderson)
Navarro kept rolling after that as Molina added a 31-yard touchdown on the second play of the second quarter to give Navarro an eventual 22-6 halftime advantage.
Eastside came out of halftime and drove into Navarro territory, but Viking defensive back Daemion Cervantes intercepted Medina to halt all of the Panther momentum.
Navarro used its ensuing drive to effectively kill off the game as it went 78 yards on seven plays with Nieto scoring on an eight-yard run for his second touchdown of the night.
The Vikings kept rolling, adding some icing onto their cake as Nieto connected with Irabel Avila for a 65-yard score before Avila scored a four-yard rushing touchdown on their next drive for the final score of the night.
But despite the lopsided defeat, Eastside’s 35th loss in a row, Becerra said he had never been prouder of his players.
“In the fifty-plus games I’ve coached at Eastside, I’m the most proud of that game right there,” Becerra said. “They fought. I believe that they played as perfectly as they could with the exception of the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, and I couldn’t be more proud of them. I told them to keep striving towards that perfection, and we’ll see where this thing goes.”
Navarro celebrates its 44-6 win over Eastside with its school song.
Meanwhile, Velasquez said that this victory is just the beginning of the hopes he has for his program.
The Vikings broke out their post-game huddle by shouting, “Beat Crockett.” They know next week’s district showdown on Thursday at Nelson Field will serve as a de facto playoff eliminator in District 12-5A Division II.
And although they’ll celebrate this victory tonight, Velasquez knows their focus will need to quickly turn to that monumental district game that now looms as the Vikings aim to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“[The Crockett game] is going to be the biggest game of [my players’] lives and the biggest game of my coaching career,” Velasquez said. “It’s going to be a tough battle. Next week is a playoff game for us.”
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