PHARR — The last time PSJA North didn’t make it out of the opening round of the postseason was in 2019, when the Raiders failed to qualify for the playoffs after finishing fifth in their district.
Since then, the Raiders have reeled off six straight first round playoff wins, including a 65-14 win last season.
PSJA North continued to dominate their opening round opponents Thursday, rolling past the Edinburg High Bobcats 64-10 during their Region IV-6A DII bi-district round contest at PSJA Stadium in Pharr.
The Raiders have now outscored their last seven first round playoff opponents 342-88.
“It feels pretty good,” PSJA North head coach Marcus Kaufmann said. “These kids are doing a great job. It’s a great program and a great community. Just look at the fans out here going crazy. It’s a fun community to be a part of. It’s the community. They’re resilient and they keep fighting and it carries over to the kids.”
The Raiders made it look easy from the opening kickoff, marching 51 yards on just 10 plays during their first offensive possession en route to a four-yard touchdown run by junior running back Mark Quintanilla.
The scoring drive was the first of five straight touchdowns by PSJA North, with the Raiders jumping out to a 35-3 lead at the break.
Junior quarterback Drayden Espinoza added a pair of touchdown runs on the ground during that span, while also throwing a touchdown pass to sophomore Ryan Diaz. Quintanilla added a 15-yard rushing touchdown to round of PSJA North’s first-half surge.
“The offense is doing a great job,” Kaufmann said. “We had Antwon (Estrada) go down a couple of weeks ago. Then earlier in the week we had Reyes go down in practice. We were kind of trying to figure out to where the back up quarterback ended up playing for a little bit. It’s kind of a next man up. Whatever I need them to do they’re up for it. Drayden even ended up playing some running back tonight with our other guy at quarterback. It ended up being a fun game for all of them mixing and matching positions.”
The offense wasn’t the only unit rolling for PSJA North during the opening half, with the Raiders, racking up three sacks and holding the Bobcats to under 100 total yards during the opening period.
Leading the charge was senior linebacker Miguel Leyva, who tallied two of this game-high three sacks during the first half.
“Those guys (the defense) are finally playing fast,” Kaufmann said. “They’re playing faster and faster each week and hopefully nextx week we’re even faster than we were tonight. Good stuff happens when you play fast and hard.”
PSJA North’s dominance carried over into the second half, ballooning it’s lead to 49-3 during the third on a 50-yard touchdown run by Espinoza and a 19-yard touchdown catch by Jonah Solis.
The Bobcats managed to get into the end zone late during the third on an 83-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Aidden Sanchez to Osiel Rios, but that’d be the first and only time they’d reach pay dirt, with PSJA North adding two more touchdowns to secure the 64-10 win.
Espinoza led the Raiders with 118 yards and one touchdown through the air, while adding a team-high 128 yards and three scores on the ground. Quintanilla chipped in 125 yards and three touchdowns on just 14 carries.
Defensively, the Raiders finished with six total sacks and three takeaways. Leyva led the team with three sacks, while Josiah Ruiz came down with two interceptions.
“I always tell my coach, whatever you need me to do I’m going to do it,” Espinoza said. “I’m a team player so of course if someone goes down I’m going to pick the team up. In practice, we went with a new package because our running back got hurt on the last day. They said if they needed me they were going to throw me in. It worked a little bit so I’m very proud. I know the coaches are proud too. I’m just excited for what we’re going to do next week.”
The Bobcats close out the season 6-5 overall, finishing the regular season as the third place team in District 31-6A.
The Raiders (9-2) advance to the Class 6A DII area round where they’ll take on the winner of Saturday’s game between San Antonio Warren and Laredo Alexander.
“It feels good,” Kaufmann said. “Football is football. We say it, but sometimes you don’t really know. Football is football and we did a pretty good job tonight and finally played four quarters.”
