Victoria Advocate | "Silvas shines in Refugio victory over Hallettsville" by mikeforman

Silvas shines in Refugio victory over Hallettsville

By mikeforman in Forman Flashes
September 5, 2009

BY MIKE FORMAN MFORMAN@VICAD.COM REFUGIO -- Draigon Silvas is too young to have seen Willie Mack Garza play for Refugio, but he has talked football with his uncle. "He told me if you want to play well, you've got to practice hard," Silvas said. "You've got to practice harder to be the best." Garza started as a freshman and became an all-state running back at Refugio before going on to play at the University of Texas. Silvas showed some of his potential by running for a 22-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter to help No. 6 Refugio claim a 27-14 win over Hallettsville on Friday night at Bobcat Stadium. "He's a great back," Refugio quarterback Kyle Hendley said. "He's a real special kid. He's got the great bloodline and I'm not cutting him short. He's done a lot of work to get to where he's at." Silvas carried 11 times for 73 yards, caught a pass for 5 yards and returned a kickoff 22 yards as Refugio rolled up 514 yards of offense while improving to 2-0. Refugio coach Jason Herring has no hesitation about playing Silvas as a freshman. The 155-pound Silvas also plays in the secondary. "I've always believed in putting the best 11 on the field," Herring said. "Draigon is such an explosive athlete. He works as hard as any kid in the program. He deserves to be out there and I'm going to use him." Silvas was just one of the weapons the Bobcats used in taking their fourth straight win over the Brahmas (0-2) by a margin bigger than the combined margin of the previous three victories. Hendley completed 19 of 27 passes for 209 yards and 10 passes were caught by Jourdan Ortiz for 159 yards. "We watch film all week and we pretty much know what their defense is going to be and we come out here and have a game plan and we run it," Hendley said. "After halftime sometimes it changes and we went to the ground in the second half." Refugio rushed for 225 yards in the final two quarters. Terrence Smith rushed for 95 yards and Charlie Henderson added 82 yards, including touchdown runs of 15 and 3 yards in the first quarter. "They've got a lot of weapons with their skill people, but their weapons are also in the offensive line," Hallettsville coach Rick Masek said. "That wore us down toward the end of the game. We're a really good football team and we're going to be even better. I'm proud of the way these kids came back after being down 13-0." Hallettsville tied the game at 13 in the third quarter on a 26-yard run by Darnell Brown before Refugio drove 66 yards, 60 of which came on the ground, and scored on a 3-yard run by Marquise Brown to take the lead for good. "I'm really not disappointed in the way we played," Herring said. "We had a lot of mental mistakes and penalties. That's not characteristic of our team." Refugio was penalized nine times for 115 yards, including six 15-yard penalties, and had two punts and two extra point kicks blocked. "I'm real pleased with the way we found a way to win," Herring said. "We actually threw the ball better tonight. We didn't turn the ball over like we did last week and we were able to run the ball there at the end." Silvas carried seven times for 67 yards in the second half. He put the game away when he went over the left side of the line, cut back to the middle and broke a number of tackles on his touchdown run with 9:56 left in the fourth quarter. He bulled his into end zone on the two-point conversion run. "I just come out here play my hardest and show all I got," Silvas said. "It just motivates me. It doesn't matter if we're down or we're up, I'm going to play my hardest. I'm never going to give up." NOTES: Hallettsville used three quarterbacks. Camp Dozier started, but Darnell Brown and Christian Wood-Dvorak also took snapsBrown completed a halfback pass for 30 yards to Dante Haynes on the Brahmas' first play from scrimmage. Haynes also caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Dozier in the second quarterHallettsville's Cortney King intercepted a Refugio pass in the end zone on a fourth-down play from the 7 just before the first half ended and recovered a fumble in the third quarterRefugio has won the last four games against Hallettsville by a combined 27 points.