MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — If you go back nearly three weeks ago, the San Benito Greyhounds looked to be cruising into the playoffs with a 5-0 mark in District 32-6A and a single win away from an outright league title.
Now, two losses and a four-way share of said district title later, the Greyhounds come in trying to avoid an early exit from the postseason as they face the Weslaco East Wildcats this Friday night at Bobby Lackey Stadium in a Class 6A Division II bi-district game.
The ‘Hounds dropped games to Harlingen South and Brownsville Rivera down the stretch and are looking to avoid a second loss to Weslaco East this year.
Both teams met in Week 2 with Weslaco East coming away with a 42-14 win.
Still, back-to-back losses or not, San Benito head coach Dan Gomez believes his team has come a long way since then.
“We just have to keep doing what we’re doing; we’re a different ball club than when we played them in week 2,” Gomez said. “We just have to tighten things up, keep on pushing and keep the expectations high.”
Down the stretch the Greyhounds had their problems with turnovers despite having a high-powered offense, which averages 426 yards per game.
In the last two games alone they turned it over eight times; five were fumbles.
Against the Wildcats, an interception in the end zone and a fumble at the 1-yard line cost San Benito a pair of potential scores.
“We don’t change our approach during practice. We stress it and we do our best as a coach to cover all the weaknesses that we have in hopes that we become stronger,” Gomez said.
The team remains confident, even with the 9-1 Wildcats eager to avenge their only loss of the season last week where they dropped the District 31-6A title to crosstown rival Weslaco High.
The last couple of weeks have not looked good for San Benito, but Gomez will not shy away from giving his competition their due.
He is simply eager to get back on the field.
”The mindset has been the same all year, and that is to continue working hard. Morale has been up,” Gomez said. “Of course, we didn’t finish the regular season how we’d like, but we played some good ball clubs—we’re looking forward to the next game.”