Lanier senior running back Nicholas Torres rushedfor 131 yards and a touchdown in the first half as the Voks defeated Jefferson 31-14 on Friday at the San Antonio\u00a0ISD Athletic Complex in the two teams’\u00a0District 14-5A-II opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I saw on the field was what we went over at practice,\u201d Torres said. \u201cWe just kept trying to pound the rock and run up the score.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Torres\u2019 efforts and a 1-yard rushing touchdown early in the second half from sophomore\u00a0QB Erick Esparza propelled the Voks to a 17-6 advantage with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After an early score, not much was going for Jefferson on offense, but the Mustangs kept plugging away on the ground, eventually punching in a 6-yard rushing touchdown from senior running back Michael Bejar.<\/p>\n
The Mustangs lined up to attempt a 2-point conversion that would cut the deficit down to three, but Mother Nature had other plans as players and coaches were forced off the field due to a lightning delay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jefferson waited over two hours for the 2-point play, but the wait was well worth it as\u00a0Bejar barreled up the A-gap for the conversion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the ensuing possession, the Voks got right back to work on the ground, alternating carries between Torres and Esparza. Lanier ran the ball eight consecutive times before Torres found the end zone for his second and final score of the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had been frustrated with the prior games because he didn\u2019t get many touches, but it was strategic,\u201d Lanier coach Sal Tellez said of Torres. \u201cWe know what we have with him. We have younger backs that we want to get into the rotation and see what they have. When you get in close games, especially in that first half, we wanted to make sure we ran with Nicholas (Torres).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0A quick three-and-out from the Mustangs gave possession back to the Voks. Three plays later, Esparza broke free for a 43-yard rushing touchdown \u2014 his second of the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a leader,\u201d Tellez said of\u00a0Esparza. \u201cHe\u2019s a sophomore leader. We have two other quarterbacks. We want to see what we have. So we rode with the other guys in the first half, and then in the second half, we threw Erick in there. And you saw how electrifying he was.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the lightning delay, Tellez had to keep his players energized.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were in there, we were just talking to them about how important it is to stay focused,\u201d Tellez explained. \u201cWe gave them bananas. We gave them some oranges. I had some of the parents go buy me some stuff because it was almost 11 p.m. So we knew they were going to be hungry. We knew they wanted to have something in their stomach, and we wanted to make sure we did that. I think that was the key. I think you saw the difference in the second half.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lanier senior running back Nicholas Torres rushedfor 131 yards and a touchdown in the first half as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-433641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}