EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Del Valle High School football team set the tone early in its District 1-5A Division 2 showdown Friday night, Sept. 20 at Canutillo.
Conquistadores’ touted quarterback Jake Fette fumbled on the third play of the game and Canutillo took over deep in Del Valle territory.
Del Valle’s defense, however, stepped up and stopped Canutillo on a goal-line stand. The Eagles came away with nothing, nada, zilch in those opening moments.
Throughout the evening, Del Valle used its tough, opportunistic defense to hold Canutillo at bay and earn a 31-14 victory.
“That was it. We had a turnover early on,” Del Valle head coach Rudy Contreras said. “They got the ball in the red zone. That was a big goal line stand.”
Fette, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, agreed that the Del Valle defense was the key to the win.
“For my defense to be able to help me like that, I really messed up with a bad play (fumble) at the beginning of the game,” Fette said. “For them to be able to help me out and hold up their side of the ball, really makes the game way easier for an offense.”
In the first half, Del Valle scored on a 2-yard run by Fette, a 40-yard run by the junior quarter and a 27-yard pass from Fette to Dylan Gonzalez. That added up to a 21-0 lead at the break.
Canutillo twice cut it to 14 in the second half but couldn’t pull any closer.
The Eagles scored on a 37-yard pass from Matthew Gasca to Lalo Carrillo with a 5:30 left in the third quarter to trim it to 21-7. With 10:22 left in the game, they pulled to within 14 again, this time 28-14, when Rene Huerta ran for a 6-yard touchdown.
Del Valle scored on a 23-yard run by Manny Fuller in the third quarter and 43-yard field goal by Diego Frausto in the fourth to round out the scoring.
Abraham Garcia of Del Valle recovered a fumble and Johnathan Estrada had an intersection in the second half to hold off Canutillo and seal the win with their big plays.
“I am so proud of our defense, our whole team,” Contreras said. “All week, we heard they (Canutillo) have the best defense in the city. They do have a really good defense, but so do we. Our guys believe that and wanted to come out and show them that. I am really proud of that effort.”
Del Valle is now 2-0 in district play and 3-0 overall. Canutillo fell to 1-1 in district and 3-1 overall.
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