Hondo Anvil Herald

Owls get first decisive win of the season

 

By Jeff Berger

Anvil Herald Publisher

 

     Crystal City -- “We’ve been wanting to start fast,” Hondo Coach Dustin Templin said after the Owls’ 31-7 win over Crystal City last Friday. “We did that, but now we need to learn how to keep the momentum going.”

     The Owls had a pair of 14-point bookends around a 36-minute dearth with only a field goal to show for it.

But there was the decisive victory. And sometimes it’s the little things that deserve notice.

     This week, the Owls will try to build on the progress when they finally return home after a month away from Barry Field. Hondo hosts Lytle on Friday, Oct. 16, for the 2026 Homecoming game. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

     Even though CC made a couple of runs at the Owls, the outcome of the Friday, Oct. 9, game at Javelina Stadium was never in doubt.

“We had a few things go our way,” Coach Templin said. “We had the opportunity to put more points on the board and didn’t, so that’s an area we’ll address this week.

     “We said during the open week that we had to get the run game going, and it took us until the second half, but we finally began to move the ball on the ground.”

     The Owls had their first 100-yard rushing game of the season (156) – it took until the sixth game – and also the team’s first 100-yard individual rusher, with Jayden Motes gaining 112 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.

     Hondo was two touchdowns ahead Friday with less than three minutes off the clock.

     Hondo’s defense got things started. Andrew Tapia had a tackle for loss on the game’s opening pass, then on third down, Colton Wiemers sacked quarterback Felix Luna, forcing a punt attempt. The deep snap bounced in, and by the time punter Adrian Ibarra could corral the loose ball, Wiemers recorded another sack, this time at the 3-yard line.

     On the Owls’ first play, Motes swept around right end for a score. The first of four extra points by Gabriel Rodriguez was good and Hondo led 7-0 with 90 seconds gone.

     Crystal’s third-down pass into the left flat was snagged by Nolan Graff, who returned it 33 yards for Hondo’s first defensive touchdown of the season, putting the Owls up 14-0 at the 9:02 mark of the opening quarter.

     Hondo almost had a chance to put the game out of reach in the first quarter. A completed pass for Crystal City was blown up by Landon Stuart, knocking the ball backwards for 19 yards where Cade Aelvoet recovered for the Owls at the CC 16. A holding penalty, however, negated a Motes run to the 3. The drive stalled, and a Rodriguez field goal attempt from 39 yards out was wide left.

     The Owls’ next possession ended with a loss of downs near midfield. Crystal answered by driving to the 8-yard line in just two plays. But a tackle for loss by Stuart and a quarterback pressure by Colby Evans on a fourth- down pass attempt gave the ball back to Hondo.

     After an Owl punt, CC faced a 3rd-and-3 at midfield. Stuart again put the stop on a running play, and Lyston Blanks came up with a seven-yard tackle for loss on fourth down. 

     The Owls took over with 1:34 left, and picked up a first down on a pass interference penalty, followed by a 16-yard Motes run. A penalty for an illegal formation erased a 17-yard TD pass from Bryson Howard to Aelvoet. On 4th-and-long, Rodriguez connected on a 39-yard FG to give Hondo a 17-0 lead heading to halftime.

     Hondo received to start the second half, with a face mask penalty added to the end of Isaiah Walker’s kickoff return. A pass from Howard to Tres Villa, followed by a 23-yard run for Motes moved the ball into the red zone, but a third-down interception ended the drive. Fortunately for the Owls, the Javelinas were flagged for a blindside block on the return, or it would’ve been a 92-yard return for a score by Jordan Urrabazo.

     The Javelinas put together their best drive of the night to that point, highlighted by a 59-yard pass to the 9-yard line. But two CC penalties and two tackles for loss by Aelvoet and Evans forced the Javelinas into a field goal attempt. Aelvoet blocked the attempt and Hondo took over at the 20.

     From there, the Owls put together one of their best drives of the season, going 80 yards in 11 plays and eating up over seven minutes.   Three runs by Joby Pimentel, four by Tapia, and two passes to Villa moved Hondo all the way to the Crystal City 27. On 4th-and-3, Kaleb Coronado took a handoff around right end for the scoring run with 8:33 left in the game.

     CC soon had to punt again, and from the Hondo 45, Motes broke through a hole and was gone for a 55-yard score, Hondo’s longest run of the year so far, for a 31-0 lead with 6:45 to play.

     Hondo pitched a shutout for 47 minutes, but Crystal went 75 yards in 13 plays – including a fourth-down conversion on a defensive delay-of game penalty – to score on a fourth down pass from Luna to Carlos Urrabazo with 57 seconds left.