Alvarado battles Waco La Vega but Pirates prevail, 27-14
Oct. 21—ALVARADO — The Alvarado Indians showed encouraging moments and the ability to compete with a talented opponent before falling short in a 27-14 loss to Waco La Vega on Friday at Charles Head Stadium.
When UIL realignment revealed Alvarado (and Waxahachie Life) were in a district with Stephenville, China Spring and Waco La Vega, the Indians (and Mustangs) were mere afterthoughts. But the Indians showed for long stretches Friday night that they have the potential to hang with the big boys.
"That's something we've been preaching to them is their mindset," Alvarado Coach Casey Walraven said. "You have to develop your mindset just like you do playing physically. First it starts with belief and having confidence in yourself and your teammates then it goes to the effort part making sure you're giving full effort every play. We've lacked in some of that recently at different moments in the season. But I really feel like we played a full four quarters with our effort this time.
"We had a chance to win the football game several different moments, it just came down to execution. On that side of things, it's us coaches getting things better and making sure our execution gets better. But the players are in complete control of their effort and they gave it all they had."
In a contest that was a 7-0 score for more than 35 minutes of game clock, the two teams combined to score five touchdowns over the final 13 minutes.
After a scoreless first quarter, La Vega took a 7-0 lead on a four-yard touchdown run by Bryson Rolland with 1:02 left until halftime.
After an interception by Alvarado cornerback West Conner to open the third quarter, the Indians had a great opportunity to tie the score but Alvarado couldn't convert.
"After West Conner's interception, we were set up great to tie the game at 7," Walraven explained. "We had a flea flicker that was wide open, we just had some mental breakdowns on execution that cost us. If we hit that, it's a different game. All in all, it was the execution on offense that didn't allow us to stay in the football game to give us a chance late."
The score remained 7-0 for much of the third quarter until the Pirates made it 14-0 after a one-yard touchdown plunge by Rolland.
But Alvarado quickly responded as Cardea Collier connected with Kaden Ford for a 76-yard touchdown pass to make it a one-score game again at 14-7.
La Vega, however, reclaimed its two-possession advantage less than 2 minutes later when Rolland scored another one-yard touchdown run for a 20-7 lead with 10:34 to play.
Needing a response to stay within striking distance, the Indians neared the red zone before turning the ball over on downs. A few plays later, the Pirates put the game away when Nickzayver Rice scored on a one-yard run for a 27-7 advantage with 7:43 remaining.
"We drove down right outside the red zone and had a fourth-and-2 and they stuffed us," Walraven said. "They strung together a couple of pretty big runs back to back at that point and for the most part put the game away. The momentum they had at that point made it a pretty tough deficit to try to overcome with the time left."
The Indians added a late touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Collier to Ford in the closing seconds.
Collier completed 15-of-28 passes for 188 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions while Ford hauled in five receptions for 120 yards and two touchdowns. Jayden Bridgewater rushed for 90 hard-earned yards on 24 carries.
La Vega piled up 465 yards of offense and 26 first downs, led by Rolland's 211 rushing yards and three scores on 31 carries. Early on, Alvarado's defense made the necessary stops to keep the Indians in it.
"We spend a lot of time working on our tackling but we really emphasized it in our off week and changed some things in practice and I think that benefitted us some defensively," Walraven said. "But first and foremost we flew around like we should fly around. For most of the night, we were doing things we were supposed to do and coached to do. It created a great defensive performance for the most part. But we had some breakdowns late on some things. Our defense kept us in the game.
"Offense just had one of those nights where we had a lot of drops and the execution was off. It shouldn't be that way this time of the year but it is so as coaches we have to make sure we're in better position to execute better. We had our chances to win the football game, we've just got to execute better offensively."
La Vega improved to 5-4 overall and 2-1 in District 5-4A Division I while Alvarado dropped to 3-5 overall and 0-2 in district play.
This week, Alvarado will visit No. 1 Stephenville, which suffered a 38-36 loss Friday to No. 2 China Spring on a 42-yard field goal as time expired. The Cougars' win snapped the Yellowjackets' 23-game winning streak, so Walraven said they fully expect to get a determined Stephenville team on Friday.
"... It's another state championship program we're facing," Walraven said. "This is three weeks in a row we face state championship-caliber teams. You've got to match it mentally and know that we've played some good football with the best. But the difference is they're playing good football for four quarters and we're picking and choosing when to do that. So we've got to string together four really good quarters.
"I'm sure Stephenville is ready to get back on the field right now and get over that loss. It's been a while since they dropped one. We're going to have to be ready for their best because they'll want redemption for being in the loss column. We're going to have to play our game and give everything we've got effort wise."
Stats provided via Alvarado ISD radio.
