Friday night the Eagles tripped up repeatedly in the red zone while Robinson made the plays it needed to give the Rockets a 24-3 victory at Eagle Stadium in a battle of winless teams.
Despite falling short again, Salado coach Jeff Cheatham feels like his young team isn't that far away from living up to its sizeable potential.
"The kids fought hard for four quarters and had opportunities," said Cheatham, whose team dips to 0-4 going into next week's District 25-2A opener against Florence. "We made some big plays on defense, but couldn't capitalize on anything."
Salado spent a fair amount of the evening in Robinson territory, but a mistake here or there kept the Eagles out of the end zone. Seven times the Eagles were across the midfield stripe and three more times inside the 20, but only managed a 30-yard field goal by Kelly Jimenez in the closing minutes of the game.
"You just can't make mistakes against a good football team like (Robinson)," Cheatham said. "We are so close to turning the corner."
A break or two might have made that corner a little tighter. The Eagles put together an impressive first-quarter drive from their own 18 to the Rockets' 15 before a sack of quarterback Cole Brentham forced them to go to Jimenez for a 39-yard field-goal attempt that came up short.
Salado had another close-range scoring opportunity in the third quarter following a 27-yard punt return to the Robinson 20 by Joey Davilla. An interception two plays later halted that chance.
In the meantime, the Rockets were piloted by quarterback Matt Walker who rushed for 102 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown and threw for 132 yards and another touchdown, successfully overcoming three interceptions.
"Matt made bad decisions at times, but he did make some things happen," said Robinson coach Brian Lewis, whose team is 1-2. "I'll take a few bad things he does next to all the good things."
Robinson broke the scoreless tie at the 8:36 mark of the second quarter when Philip Hurtado found open sailing on an inside trap and went untouched for a 67-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead after Jesus Alejandro's point-after.
Walker engineered an 83-yard march that ended in a 26-yard field goal for Alejandro just 14 seconds before half, leaving the Rockets up 10-0.
Walker went deep to Drew Johnson on the first possession of the second half for a 46-yard touchdown toss to put the Rockets ahead 17-0 and maintain the momentum they carried into halftime.
"They dared us to throw the football," said Lewis. "They stuffed us and stuffed us inside and we made an adjustment in our formation and caught them with no safety."
On the Rockets' final scoring drive of 69 yards in six plays, Walker hit Johnson for 32 yards and followed that by keeping it for 30 more to the Eagles 8. Three plays later he burrowed into the end zone from the 2 for a 24-0 margin with 9:24 to play.
Austin Silva paced the Eagles' rushing attack with 94 yards on 17 carries. Brentham was 10-for-22 for 82 yards and one interception. Cameron Bellingham, Boomer Wells and Hunter Ward all had interceptions, but only Ward's eventually led to points.
