MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
Sharyland High and Mission Veterans Memorial collide Friday in The Monitor’s Game of the Week, and it’s pretty obvious that it won’t be your run-of-the-mill regular-season matchup.
“We’re playing for a district championship,” Mission Vets coach David Gilpin said.
Yes, it’s still early in the season, but the two teams projected to finish atop District 31-5A have largely lived up to their promise, and they battle tonight in a game that could very well influence which team winds up hoisting the district title.
“You’ve got to be ready for that type of game,” Sharyland High coach Ron Adame said. “We’re expecting their best.”
The top-ranked Ratters (4-1, 1-0) have won the previous two district titles. And by beating fifth-ranked Edinburg Vela in Week 5, Sharyland High crossed off the first of two major threats to that elusive third title. No. 6 Mission Vets (3-1, 0-0) is next in line, which is why the matchup is regarded as arguably the best 31-5A collision of the season.
“There’s some good football teams in our district,” Gilpin said. “But if we want to win a district championship, we feel like we have to win (tonight). There’s tremendous magnitude on this game. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how good Sharyland is. That’s not a make-believe ranking over there. They belong No. 1.”
The two teams haven’t played since 2002 and 2003, back when they were 4A programs. Sharyland High won handily each time.
The Patriots (3-1, 0-0) are coming off a bye on the opening week of district. In some respects, they were the forgotten team as Sharyland opened with a win, handing Edinburg Vela its first loss of the year. But there’s opportunity for Mission Vets to make up ground, and it presents itself tonight at Tom Landry Stadium.
“I certainly believe (the players) felt the sense of urgency (this week in practice),” Gilpin said. “There’s got to be a sense of urgency with everything that we do. The kids can feel it. This is a big one. This is different. This is district. It’s not imperative to show them (how important the game is). They know it.”
Every week, it seems, the Rattlers have faced stiff competition; all four of their non-district opponents were playoff teams last year.
It isn’t unusual for Sharyland High to open with a district schedule this tough. As Adame noted, “The only thing that’s changed is the name of the opponent.”
Now in the same district, the Mission schools are likely to develop a rivalry in the coming years, and it begins with a game that can have either Sharyland High penciled in with the district title, assuming it wins out, or give all the momentum to Mission Veterans, which faces Edinburg Vela in the regular-season finale.
“Right now, our sights are locked in on (tonight),” Adame said
But it’s difficult to ignore how Sharyland High’s schedule eases up from here, going up against unranked opponents. After this week, the Rattlers take on Roma (3-1-1, 1-0) and Sharyland Pioneer (3-2, 1-0) — two playoff-caliber opponents — before winding down with Valley View (0-5, 0-1) and Rio Grande City (1-4, 0-1), respectively.
Adame isn’t jumping the gun, saying his team is “focused on going a week a time.”
The collision has all the necessary components for a memorable night: quarterback matchups (Sharyland High’s Lance Madden vs. Mission Vets’ Santos Villarreal), scoring punch (the top two offensive teams in district), defense (Mission Vets second in district in yards allowed) and, perhaps more importantly, the ramifications this game can have on the district outcome.
“It’s a big mountain to climb,” Gilpin said, “but we’ll show up.”