By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
After the Falcons’ special teams set the tone early, everyone else followed suit.
On the strength of pair of touchdowns during the first half — a blocked punt return and a kickoff return — the Los Fresnos Falcons earned a 42-23 road victory over the Harlingen South Hawks on Friday night at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen.
“We’ve had good special teams all year long. I think we have three blocked punts for touchdowns this year and now a kick return for a touchdown,” Los Fresnos coach Clint Finley said. “Those are huge. We count on our special teams. People underestimate how big of a deal that really is, (and Friday night) it was wonderful.”
The Los Fresnos defense held the Hawks on a goal-line stand during their first drive, and then Harlingen South failed to get its offense going and was forced to punt on its second drive. Jonathan De Leon blocked the punt attempt and recovered in the end zone for the touchdown to give the Falcons a 7-3 lead.
After the Falcons’ offense scored a pair of touchdowns on the ground — quarterback Pierce Ruiz found the end zone after a 34-yard run and running back Isaac Moreno followed with a 2-yard run — the Hawks answered with one through the air. Quarterback Jimmy Morton found Bobby Castro on a 60-yard strike for the touchdown to cut the deficit to 21-10.
Raul Lopez fielded the ensuing kickoff, found a seam and took it 95 yards to the end zone for a touchdown. The score gave the Falcons a 28-10 lead at the half and the all momentum they needed.
“We gave up big plays, and we didn’t play clean,” Harlingen South coach Lanny Wilson said. “You can’t do that against a good team like Los Fresnos.”
Los Fresnos kept up the pressure on defense all evening. The Falcons sacked Morton three times and forced the Harlingen South offense to turn the ball over on downs on three drives, including a fourth-quarter shutdown to stop any chance Harlingen South had to rally late.
Falcons quarterback Pierce Ruiz gave the Hawks’ defense fits with his arm and his feet. He completed 7 of 11 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns, and he ran for 126 yards on 18n carries and another score for Los Fresnos (4-2, 2-1).
“Last week was a big game (against San Benito) and (Ruiz) did a lot of good things,” Finley said. “But this week he seemed to handle things a little better, with more grace. He executed, and that makes all the difference in the world for us. That’s what we ask of our quarterbacks, and he did a great job tonight.”
Harlingen South (2-4, 1-2) scored a pair of touchdowns during the second half. The first was scored on a pass from Morton to Alec Garza from 11 yards out, and later Morton found paydirt on a 3-yard run. Morton completed 7 of 16 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns, and he ran for the other score.
But it wasn’t enough against the Falcons’ defense.
“We corrected a few things (in the second half). We played well in spurts, but we can’t make the mistakes or give up the big plays,” Wilson said. “The penalties, the negative plays. We had too many negative plays to beat a good team.”
Finley said the team made some personnel adjustments this past week after the loss to the Greyhounds in Week 6.
“It was a scary thing coming into this (game). I didn’t know exactly how well we were going to be able to execute,” he said. “I was proud of everybody, everybody came to work and did well. I was happy with a lot of the things I saw. I was proud of the way the boys played.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.