EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Austin High School football team used a grind-it-out running game and a ball-hawking defense en route to a dominating 42-0 win over visiting Riverside Friday night, Oct. 25 in District 1-4A Division I action.
Both teams were undefeated in district action coming into the game.
Austin forced five turnovers during the showdown Friday night and controlled the clock especially during the first half. The Panthers led 28-0 at the break and never looked back.
“That was a great team (we beat),” Austin High coach Eric Pichardo said. “They were 7-0. We got everyone’s best. We got Ysleta when they were undefeated. We got Irvin when they were on a roll. We got these guys at 7-0. Credit to our guys. They executed the game plan to perfection.”
Austin took control early and held the ball for almost the entire first quarter, culminating with a 9-yard touchdown run by Oscar Flores.
Austin quarterback Anakin Torres then scored on a 3-yard keeper with 3:39 in the second quarter to make it 14-0.
At this point, it was still very much a game, between two district heavyweights.
That’s when Austin linebacker Diego Coronado came up with what proved to be the play of the game. He stripped the ball away from Riverside and rambled to a 69-yard score, making it 21-0.
Torres later hit T.J. Walker on a 24-yard scoring strike to round out the first-half scoring.
In the third quarter, Austin’s Jeremiah Parrish intercepted a pass and ran it back 40 yards. That set up Torres to score on a quarterback keeper from 1 yard out, the third touchdown that he had a hand in.
Coronado, who plays on both sides of the ball, added Austin’s final score when he ran it in from 11 yards out to make it 42-0 with 8:09 to play in the game.
Joel Castenda and Andru Andujo both had interceptions for Austin.
Austin improved to 6-0 in district play and 7-1 overall. Riverside dropped to 5-1 in district and 7-1 overall.
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