The Herald-Zeitung

There wasn’t much time to enjoy Friday night’s 35-3 win over Alamo Heights, as New Braunfels coaches on Saturday afternoon were packing up cars and heading to Corpus Christi to view the Unicorns’ next playoff opponent.

New Braunfels (12-0) will play either Gregory-Portland (8-4), a 27-23 winner over Corpus Christi Flour Bluff on Saturday, in the Class 4A-Region IV Division I championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Corpus Christi’s Buccaneer Stadium.

Smithson Valley coaches were also busy, preparing for the Rangers’ upcoming game Harlingen South (12-0), which defeated McAllen Rowe 30-24 in overtime on Saturday. The Rangers (11-1) will take on South in a Class 5A-Division II regional playoff at 7 p.m. Friday, also at Buccaneer Stadium.

With their victory at Farris Stadium, the fifth-ranked Unicorns on Friday became the eighth team in school history to win 12 games — and they did it in impressive fashion against the defending 4A-I champion Mules. Quarterback Ryan Perez threw for three scores and ran for another, while the defense limited the high-scoring Mules without a touchdown and 200 yards below their season average.

The win was so impressive that the state is buzzing about the Unicorns, who are now being considered as one of the teams to beat for the state championship. New Braunfels is in the third round of the playoffs for the 10th time overall and first time since 2002, when the Unicorns advanced to the 4A-I championship.

“We knew that the road to where we wanted to go would have to go through Alamo Heights,” Caniford said. “We came ready to play tonight. I don’t know much about who we’ll be playing — all I know is that we’re playing football in December, and that’s a great feeling.”

While Perez and the Unicorns were celebrating their dazzling win on Saturday, Caniford said Friday’s performance wasn’t entirely about payback for last year’s 31-21 loss to the Mules.

“We didn’t talk about the revenge factor so much. We have tremendous respect for their players and their program and coaches,” he said. “We play 7-on-7 with them in the summer and are very familiar with them. It was a respect thing, knowing we’d have to play our best football in order to have a chance to beat them.”

Perez didn’t talk to reporters prior to Friday’s game.

“I didn’t want to say anything to spark Alamo Heights. They’re a good football team,” he said. “We just played great in all three phases of the game. The defense did a heck of a job today. . . so did the offensive line, running the ball and picking up the blitzes towards the end.”

Perez, a senior, completed 10 of 21 passes for 133 yards and rushed 22 times for another 71 yards.

“I thought he played great. He managed the game very well and didn’t make any mental mistakes,” Caniford said of Perez. “When he got into trouble he got rid of the football and he didn’t throw it into traffic to give them a short field. I thought he played really, really well.”

The Unicorns didn’t total a lot of yards — they finished with 305 on the night — but had better than average field position because of short Heights punts and the defense’s stopping the Mules twice on downs and netting two interceptions.

“We started off slowly. They were bringing the blitz, so we just started running the ball,” Perez said. “And Spencer Jergins had a heck of a game — he had two touchdowns. They were short passes and he just made the plays afterwards.”

Jergins caught scoring passes of 5 and 21 yards.

“Anytime I get the opportunity to make a play on offense, I relish it,” said Jergins, who also led the charge on defense. He said the key was getting to the Mules’ receivers.

“We were able to jam them up a little bit and play them a lot more physical than they’re used to playing. That really disrupted a lot of their passes and routes,” he said. “We had a good game plan going into this game — getting really physical with them and laying hands on them, bumping them around. Not giving them anything.

“We worked our tails off this week and we deserved this one.”

Smithson Valley

SAN ANTONIO — No details were available Saturday on the condition of star runner Trent Rios, who suffered what was thought to be a high left ankle sprain early during the Rangers’ 49-22 blowout of East Central in their Class 5A-Division II area playoff game.

Rios was injured with 4:54 left in the first quarter of Friday’s morning contest at the Alamodome. He was dragged down by East Central’s Corey Johnson, who rolled over him shortly after Rios’ 8-yard touchdown run gave the Rangers a 14-0 lead. Rios was to have had X-rays performed late Friday or early Saturday.

Rios — who came into the game with 1,498 yards on 221 carries this season — finished with 29 yards on four carries. However, backup Trey Reinhart finished the job, totaling 105 yards and a score on 14 carries. Cody Renken scored on two touchdown runs and added another on the first of David Pawelek’s two TD passes in the victory.

“As much as you hate to see injuries — on our kids or anyone else’s — they’re inevitable in this game,” Smithson Valley coach Larry Hill said. “As hard as it was to see Trent go down, we had to press on. I thought our kids did a good job of doing that.”

The Rangers totaled 431 yards offense that included a 15 of 21 passing performance by Pawelek, who is improving with each week.

“He was able to stick the throws in there and our guys were able to do something with them after the catch,” said Hill of his senior, who passed for 222 yards.

The only other glaring negative in the contest was Smithson Valley penalties, which totaled 10 for 85 yards.

“We did (have more than usual) and it’s hard to say why,” Hill said. “We had a few of them, such as the personal foul on the kid who didn’t hear the whistle and kept going. But all I know is that we have to eliminate them.”