Back to the drawing board

Alexander opens District 30-6A competition with loss to United South. However, the Bulldogs are still hopeful about their season.

By Garrett Kroeger

Friday wasn’t the outcome the Alexander Bulldogs hoped for. 

Entering this season, Alexander entered as one of the favorites to potentially win District 30-6A. However, its path to a league title has become a tad harder now as they opened district competition with a 16-7 loss to United South on Friday. 

“Every game is a learning experience,” Alexander head coach Edwin Garcia said. “Our boys had a huge burden fighting for our community, trying to do their best for the Bulldog Nation. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done for them.” 

The result was the same old story for the Bulldogs. Their defense would play lights out, only for their offense to hinder their chances to win. 

In the beginning though, it seemed as if Alexander was going to potentially dominate the matchup. On their opening drive, the Bulldogs marched down the field with ease as it was capped off by a touchdown reception by Rickey Carson. But as the game went on, the Navy & Gold lost momentum and their spark.

“United South played great,” Garcia said. “They adjusted well. They adjusted to what we were doing. We are trying to stick to our passing game. It might have caught up to us there.” 

At the halfway point of the season, Alexander has yet to play a complete game. 

Entering the matchup against United South, Garcia had hoped the Bulldogs would finally play well at all three levels – offense, defense and special team. Unfortunately though, that didn’t happen. Just like Alexander’s previous two losses – San Antonio Marshall and Boerne-Champion — the defense played solid enough to keep the team within an earshot of victory, only for the offense to fall flat. 

Garcia – just like the Bulldogs’ previous two losses – took the blame for Friday’s result. He knows that his team is better than its record shows – Alexander is now 2-3 midway through the year. And he’s determined to unlock its full potential on a consistent basis. 

“I need to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to be more consistent,” Garcia said. “It’s about consistency. We didn’t execute the way we were supposed to. It looked like we were going too early on, but we need to find out where it fell apart. 

“This one's on me. I need to figure out what to do a little bit better and what to do with our guys and personnel.” 

Not only did Alexander fall to United South, but it potentially lost starting quarterback Karlo Tenorio for a period of time as he suffered an ankle injury during the loss. So, this coming Thursday against Del Rio, the Bulldogs could be utilizing their third different starting signal caller this season. 

The Bulldogs had hoped to be 1-0 to start District 30-6A play instead of 0-1. However, while their road to a league championship has begun with a setback, they are still confident they could lift the title come later this year. They know plenty of teams have won their districts in the past after beginning league competition with a loss. 

Alexander knows its potential. It knows it can be a dominant team if it plays well consistently for all four quarters. It just needs to unlock that promise. And that’s what Garcia is determined to do. He’s intent on getting the Bulldogs to be at their best for the remainder of the season. And if he’s able to do that, he knows his team will be in for a lot of success this year. 

“There’s still five games left,” Garcia said. “We can still get this done. We still have a lot of fight in us.  

“We have a hell of a team. We just need to figure out what we are good at. We just need to figure out the pieces of the puzzle. Just have to go back to the drawing board.”