Neither Avery nor Watauga could run the football with any effectiveness against each other in their annual border war Friday at Jack Groce Stadium. Avery quarterback Alex Villanueva made sure the passing game would make up for it for the Vikings. Villanueva shook off two interceptions by completing 21-of-38 passes for 293 yards and two second-half touchdowns in the Vikings' 28-14 win over Watauga. The junior quarterback also scored TD runs of 5 and 3 yards, making him responsible for all four Avery touchdowns.
It was the first time since 2005 the Vikings have beaten the Pioneers and the first time since that same year Avery is off to a 3-0 start.
“Obviously we didn't get enough things going early,” Pioneers coach Tim Pruitt said. “It seemed that any time we'd get something positive going, we'd have a little penalty.”
The Vikings, who outscored their first two opponents 84-21, found themselves in a 7-7 tie with Watauga (1-2) at halftime. Neither team was moving the ball very well on the ground and that continued in the second half. Watauga finished with 77 yards on 30 carries, while Avery fared slightly better, gaining 97 yards on 27 carries.
Thanks to its passing game, Avery finished with 390 total yards on 67 plays and converted 6-of-13 third downs.
“They kept us so off-balance on offense,” Pruitt said. “They don't run a lot of passing routes, but they run some things very well and obviously they worked on throwing on rhythm, which I thought Villanueva does very well. And their receivers run good, precision routes.”
Villanueva caught fire in the third quarter and led the Vikings on an 81-yard, five-play drive highlighted by a 64-yard completion to Remington Austin, who also caught the drive-capping 10-yard touchdown pass to give the Vikings a 14-7 lead.
Avery made it 21-7 with a 91-yard, 10-play drive capped by a Villanueva 3-yard TD run.
“We felt like early we weren't in rhythm,” Vikings coach Darrell Brewer said. “We just weren't clicking and they came out fired up in the third quarter and played really well.”
Watauga, which scored first with 28 seconds left in the first quarter on a 1-yard Baker Stanley run, found some offense when quarterback Caleb Watson capped a 71-yard, 11-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. Watson completed 3-for-5 passes on the drive and 8-of-16 for the game for 99 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.
Fellow quarterback Ethan Greene completed 3-of-8 passes for 13 yards with no interceptions or touchdowns.
“Our defense really stepped up tonight,” Brewer said. “We made some changes and moved some kids around. The first-half defense really kept us in the ballgame.”
Avery scored its final touchdown when Villanueva threw a strike to Andy Gonzalez for a 24-yard touchdown with 3:09 left.
Watauga's offense settled for 189 total yards on 54 plays. The Pioneers also hurt themselves by committing 13 penalties, eight in the first half, for 108 yards.
“It was kind of hard to get a handle on all that they were trying to do,” Pruitt said. “They were trying to mess up our blocking schemes and I don't know if they messed up our schemes or if we didn't maintain our blocks enough. It was hard to kind of get a handle.”
Watauga also suffered a tough loss when standout junior linebacker Alex Fox went down because of a knee injury. It was not immediately known how serious his injury was.
Avery will look to move to 4-0 this season when they travel to take on Cloudland (Tenn.) this Friday night.
