The Southwest Legacy Titans beat their rivals, the Southwest Dragons, 17-14 on a last-second touchdown run by senior running back Damian Hernandez, with 37 seconds left in the game to win the third Fire and Armor Bowl on Oct. 22, at the Alamodome.
Fans of both teams came to the Alamodome to watch the Fire and Armor Bowl, which lived up to expectations in a game that could have gone either way.
The Dragons had a chance to tie or take the lead when they got the ball to the Titans 34-yard line.
Dragons junior quarterback Nathan Gamez missed on a deep pass to sophomore running back Andre Mitchell but on the next play, Titans senior defensive end Zachary Luna sealed the victory with a sack on Gamez.
In this short rivalry, the Titans are 2-1 over the Dragons.
The Titans scored the first points of the game with a second-quarter 36-yard field goal by senior Javier Lira and an 18-yard touchdown pass to senior Jorge Pineda from junior quarterback Zezar Tovar to take a 10-0 lead.
The Dragons would cut the Titans lead to 10-7 when Mitchell scored on a 5-yard run with 19 seconds left in the first half.
Mitchell, who Dragons head coach Alex Franco said was the team’s workhorse, had 34 carries for 125-yards rushing and one reception for 13 yards.
Gamez threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Armando Rodriguez to take a third quarter 14-10 lead.
Despite being a low scoring game, the two rivals showed plenty of excitement in the second half on the ensuing kickoff with a big hit by Dragons Vincent Parchen on Titans Pineda.
There was a brief scuffle after the Titans punted the ball to Mitchell, and was tackled by four Titans players late in the third quarter.
Both teams played their next game on Oct. 30 where the Dragons lost their game against the Southside Cardinals 42-14 and the Titans beat Rio Grande City Rattlers 41-20.
The 0-6 Dragons will travel to Laredo on Nov. 7 to play the Cigarroa Toros and the 4-2 Titans will host the Southside Cardinals on Nov. 13.
