BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
LA JOYA — While 200-plus yard, four-touchdown games like Friday’s have become commonplace for McAllen Memorial running back Trevor Speights, he did secure a significant first in the Mustangs’ win: his first district title.
After a 34-14 victory against an upstart La Joya Palmview team that gave the Mustangs a stiffer test than the final score shows, Memorial can finish no worse than tied for the District 30-6A championship.
“I’m grateful, obviously. I have the best teammates in the world,” Speights said. “I wouldn’t change this moment for anything.”
At 8-1 overall and 5-0 in district, McAllen Memorial needs only to avoid what would be a shocking upset at the hands of Mission High next week.
Were the Mustangs to somehow fall, they would still share the title with the winner of next week’s matchup between Palmview (6-2-1, 4-1) and McAllen High. Memorial last won a district title in 2011, before the current crop of seniors had cracked the varsity roster.
“This senior class had never won a district title, so it was important,” coach Bill Littleton said. “You love to see those seniors accomplish some of those goals. Our slogan this year was, ‘Bring back the gold.’ That’s what we’ve done so far. We brought back part of the gold, anyway.”
The Lobos did everything they could to keep the Mustangs from that goal. Palmview was clearly fired up coming out of the gate, forcing Memorial to punt on each of its first three possessions.
The powerhouse Mustangs offense hadn’t been forced to punt more than twice in an entire game since Week 1, when Sharyland High forced four.
“We told our kids coming into the ball game that they were going to be sky high,” Littleton said. “You always have to weather those storms. You have to weather those emotions until the game comes down to just playing. You can’t have that emotional high for 48 minutes.”
Palmview’s offense came out equally strong and scored on its opening possession, when Abel Torres scored from 22 yards out with 3:14 remaining in the first quarter to put the Lobos ahead 7-0.
Torres finished the game with four carries for 94 yards and two scores. Jose Bernal ran 20 times for 133 yards as Palmview racked up 315 yards on the ground.
“That was our game plan,” Palmview coach Margarito Requenez said. “We did what we wanted to do. There were a couple of mistakes there that really came back and haunted us. …. We had the momentum, and I think we killed ourselves.”
Palmview fumbled three times and lost all three. Those miscues hurt the Lobos down the stretch, as Speights scored touchdown runs of 57, 61 and 2 yards, respectively, between 4:03 in the third quarter and 5:40 in the fourth to stretch Memorial’s lead to 34-7 and put the game out of reach.
“It was a lot closer than that,” Requenez said. “We just broke down at the end.”
The Lobos limited Memorial to 266 rushing yards — the Mustangs fewest in a game by 90. Memorial’s first two possessions amounted to minus-6 rushing yards.
“We came into this game kind of underestimating them,” Speights said. “We woke up in the second half, we played Mustang football, and we left with the win.”
JOHNSON’S REDEMPTION
As Palmview sold out to take away Speights, Memorial wideout DJ Johnson faced one-on-one coverage for the majority of the night.
Johnson struggled to take advantage in the early going, dropping what looked to be a sure 56-yard touchdown pass as Memorial was trailing 7-0.
“I was pissed,” Johnson said. “I was thinking about last game. The last game I did pretty bad, I was dropping balls and everything. The second one I got, I had to go get it.”
That’s exactly what he did, scoring an 82-yard touchdown on a deep ball from quarterback Fabian Pedraza on the first play of Memorial’s fifth drive. The score gave the Mustangs a 13-7 lead. Johnson finished with four catches for 145 yards, plus a two-point conversion on a jump ball from 13 yards out following a penalty.
SCRAPPY GAME
Both teams picked up multiple personal foul penalties as emotions ran high given the district title implications.
One particularly chippy sequence came with 5:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, when Memorial’s Michael Garza and Palmview’s Arturo Gutierrez were disqualified from the game after a small shoving match following a turnover.
LOBOS BANGED UP
La Joya Palmview lost a pair of offensive linemen and running back Freddy Villarreal to injury during the game, but Requenez said he expected they’d all be back by next week.