What a way to start the season: Apaches humble Buccaneers 53-14

One of the things Gonzales coach Ricky Lock hoped to do in Friday’s high-school football season opener was get off to a fast start.
Check.
He also wanted to win to help boost his players’ confidence.
Check. Underline. Another check. Circle it.
The Apaches held Corpus Christi Miller without a first down and just four total yards in the first half while striking for 33 points themselves en route to a 53-14 drubbing of the Buccaneers, a victory sure to do wonders for the Apaches’ confidence.
“Well, we’ve matched last year’s win total,” Lock quipped, referring to last year’s 1-9 campaign which convinced school officials and supporters to lure him back from Gainesville after two years.
“It’s a good way to come back,” Lock said. “My staff gave us a great game plan, we executed very well, we got a little lackadaisical in the second half but I think we made progress.”
It was a personal-highlights night for Gonzales running back Mark Hastings, who piled up 207 rushing yards on 13 carries, and for wide receiver Kedrick Cray and quarterback Evan Owens.
Cray caught six passes from Owens for 161 yards and three touchdowns, then for a nightcap returned a punt 80 yards for another score. Owens finished his evening 11-of-25 passing for 199 yards and four TDs, throwing a 23-yarder to JonAnthony Casares in the third quarter.
Owens also had a one-yard dive for a score, and Blake Moore batted a Miller pass out of the air right to teammate Cory Espinosa, who jaunted 70 yards for a defensive touchdown.
The Apaches took charge of the game early on, and dominated the Buccaneers before a couple of big plays got Miller on the scoreboard in the second half.
The teams traded possessions to open the contest, then Gonzales drove deep into Miller territory before stalling. A 14-yard run by Hastings, a slip-screen to Cray that gained 26 yards and another 12-yard burst by Hastings got the ball to the Bucs’ 21-yard line, but the Apaches turned the ball over  on downs four plays later at the 13.
The Bucs followed by going three and out and Gonzales set up shop again at the Miller 42. Owens went for the home run on the first play, looking long for Cray, but it fell incomplete. No problem: onthe next play, Owens found Cray down the sideline and the 6-0 senior made an acrobatic backpedaling grab of the ball, then sidestepped a Miller defender to take it to the end zone.
Ivan Guerrero nailed the PAT for a 7-0 lead with 6:03 left in the opening quarter.
Three possessions later, the Apaches got the ball near midfield after a Buc punt. An illegal formation penalty set them back five yards, but on the next play Hastings followed a gaping hole up the middle, slipped three tacklers at the line, then picked up a big clearing block from Cray at the 10-yard line to race 59 yards for a score.
Guerrero’s PAT made it 14-0.
Landon Lock’s recovery of a fumbled Miller snap set the Apaches up at the Buccaneer 44 early in the second quarter, and Gonzales mounted another scoring drive. A 19-yard burst by Hastings picked up one first down, then a defensive holding call when a Miller defensive back tackled Cray at the snap on a pass play got the ball to the Buc 10-yard line.
From there, Owens hit Cray with a quick look-in pass and the senior slipped through defenders into the end zone for a 21-0 lead.
Miller tried a fake punt on fourth down on its ensuing possession but the Apaches sniffed it out and stopped the Bucs three yards short of the first-down marker, setting the offense up at the Miller 49. Hastings plowed ahead for six yards before Gonzales went for the home run again. This time, Owens pass was underthrown but Cray turned around and came back for the ball, snagged it and dodged a diving tackle try by Billy Valenzuela to complete a 43-yard scoring play.
The PAT failed, and it was 27-0.
The Apaches made it 33-0 minutes later, covering 54 yards in six plays, with a spectacular 33-yard run by Hastings highlighting the drive and Owens plowing in from a yard away for the score.
The first half ended with Gonzales having piled up 14 first downs and 368 total yards to no first downs and just four total yards for Miller.
Gonzales struck again midway through the third quarter, when the Buccaneers got caught by a blitz and Moore batted Tyrell Clay’s pass up into the air. Espinosa snagged the ball and converted it into a 70-yard score.
Miller finally got some offense going on its next drive, almost by accident. Miller got a bad snap in the shotgun formation and juggled the ball, but as the Apache defenders closed in managed to find a target in Michael perry down the sideline. The speedy Perry slipped a couple of Gonzales tacklers and converted it into a 49-yard pass play.
Gonzales got its final two scores in the fourth period.
Lock burst through to smother a Miller punt and set the Apaches up at the Bucs’ 33-yard line, and six straight running plays to Zac Moreno got the ball to the 23 before Owens lofted a nice pass to Casares in the corner of the end zone for the score.
Cray got the Apaches’ final tally of the evening on Miller’s next series when he fielded a punt, slipped past three tacklers and turned on the afterburners to take it 80 yards the other way.
The Buccaneers followed with their only other offense of the night. Quarterback Matthew Pena sailed a nice pass to Julian Firo, who took it 70 yards before being hauled down by Moreno. Two plays later, however, Pena found Shaquille Mayberry in front of the Apache defense in the end zone and hit him with an 11-yard scoring pass.

GONZALES 53, CC MLLER 14
Score by Quarters
Miller             0   0   7   7 — 14
Gonzales     14 19  6  14—53
Scoring Plays
GON—Kedrick Cray 42 pass from Evan Owens (Ivan Guerrero kick)
GON—Mark Hastings 59 run (Ivan Guerrero kick)
GON—Kedrick Cray 10 pass from Evan Owens (Ivan Guerrero kick)
GON—Kedrick Cray 43 pass from Evan Owens (kick failed)
GON—Evan Owens 1 run (kick failed)
GON—Cory Espinosa 70 interception return (kick failed)
MIL—Michael Perry 49 pass from Tyrell Clay (Jason Trevino kick)
GON—JonAnthony Casares 23 pass from Evan Owens ((ivan Guerrero kick)
GON—Kedrick Cray 80 punt return (Ivan Guerrero kick)
MIL—Shaquille Mayberry 11 pass from Matthew Pena (Rene Garcia kick)


TEAM STATISTICS
                                                MIL        GON
First Downs                          3            16
Rushes-yards                      34-23     32-219
Passing yards                     136        199
Passes                                 5-21-1     11-25-0
Punts-Avg                             9-31.0       3-32.3
Penaties-Yards                    5-40        5-30
Fumbles-Lost                      3-1        2-1

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
    RUSHING: Miller—Perry 16-17, Clay 8-12. Gonzales—Hastings 13-207, Moreno 10-9, Owens 7-4.
    PASSING: Miller, Clay 1-16-1-49, Pena 3-4-0-84. Gonzales, Owens 11-25-0-199.
    RECEIVING: Miller, Firo 1-70, Perry 1-49, Mayberry 1-11. Gonzales, Cray 6-161, Cartwright 2-11, Casares 1-23, Moore 1-14.