1987: 🏈 Refugio vs Woodsboro

1987: 🏈 Refugio vs Woodsboro September 25, 1987: Refugio 66, Woodsboro 0 ‘Cats Bombard Eagles By Coy Slavik, Victoria Advocate September 26, 1987 The Refugio Bobcats began their District 32-2A slate Friday night right where they left off a year ago. The top-ranked Bobcats, who outscored 32-2A opponents 443-22 last season, used a career performance from running back Willie Mack Garza and impressive varsity debut by quarterback Scooter Hesseltine to roll past the Woodsboro Eagles 66-0 in the district opener for both schools. Garza rushed for a career-high 200 yards and two touchdowns and also scored on a66-yard pass and run play from the sophomore Hesseltine. Hesseltine, who also ran for a score, finished the night with seven completions on eight attempts for 129 yards and two touchdowns. “We played really well, tonight,” said Refugio coach Bobby Kelly whose Bobcats improved to 4-0 and raised their home win streak to 21 games. “Give Woodsboro credit they played extremely hard in the first quarter. But we just had them outnumbered.” Garza got off to an inauspicious start as he fumbled twice to kill two Bobcat drives in a scoreless first quarter. “Those things happen,” said Garza, who raised his season rushing total to 748 yards and 12 touchdowns. “You just have to come back on the next play.” After the Eagles (2-2) blanked the potent Refugio in the first quarter, Hesseltine finally got his chance in the opening moments of the second. Hesseltine, the Bobcats’ starting quarterback coming into the season, was forced to miss Refugio’s first three games with a foot injury. With a steel plate protecting his healing foot, Hesseltine was sent in by Kelly to replace Joe Richard Castellano with 11:13 left before the half. “We started off bad and we just weren’t moving the football with Joe in there,” Kelly said. “It was time for a move.” On his first play from scrimmage at the Bobcat 34, Hesseltine faked a handoff to fullback Manuel Silvas up the middle then flipped a pass to Garza, who had rolled out to the right sideline. Garza broke one tackle then raced down the sideline 66 yards into the Eagle end zone to put Refugio up 6-0. The rout was on. With Hesseltine at the controls, Refugio went on to score touchdowns on its next seven possessions. Garza ran for a 20-yard score with 5:22 left in the half and Michael Whitmire climaxed an 8-play, 72-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge to put the Bobcats into halftime with a 20-0 edge. Refugio continued the onslaught in the second half as it scored three touchdowns in the first 5:15 of the third quarter to put the game on ice. Ralph Jones galloped 61 yards on the first play of the period to make it 26-0. Shortly after Lance Koonce recovered a fumble by Woodsboro’s Sammy Vega at the Eagle 30 on the ensuing kickoff, Hesseltine hit a diving Al Grumbles in the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown pass that put Refugio up 32-0. Garza then got back into the act on the Bobcats’ next series as he followed a lead block by tight end Andy O’Pry to conclude a sparkling 45-yard scoring jaunt. Upton’s second point after pushed Refugio’s lead to 39-0 with 6:45 still to go in the third period. Hesseltine closed out the third quarter barrage with a 9-yard bootleg run for a touchdown as time ran out in the period. The Bobcat defense held Woodsboro to just one first down in the first three quarters of play. The Refugio offense, amassing 242 yards alone in the third quarter, finished with 643 yards – 514 on the ground. Garza set up the Bobcats’ next score with a 47-yard punt return to the Woodsboro 20. Three plays later, Willie Henderson ran in for the touchdown from 5 yards out. Upton’s kick made it 52-0. Henderson also accounted for Refugio’s next points as he blocked a Shane Longmire punt, scooped up the ball and raced 13 yards for a touchdown with 6:07 left to play. The Bobcats’ final score came on a 56-yard dash by Whitmire with 3:28 remaining in the game. The Eagles entered Refugio territory only once and that came in the final seconds. Quarterback Mike Martinez hit Jerry Wren with a 37-yard completion to the Bobcat 40 and later scrambled 31 yards to the 11. But Navor Hernandez picked off a Martinez pass at the 9 to preserve the shutout.