BY DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
McAllen High coach Kevin Brewer says tonight is just another District 30-6A game. McAllen Memorial coach Bill Littleton acknowledges its importance for the community, but he’s just trying to keep it like any other week.
But make no doubt about it. When the rival Bulldogs(6-2 overall, 4-0 district) and Mustangs (6-1, 3-0) clash at 7:30 tonight in The Monitor’s Game of the Week there will be a little more oomph, a little more hoorah. It’s normal for coaches to temper hype, but in some cases that is unavoidable, especially for a game that has developed into one of the Valley’s top rivalries.
As is usually the case when these two teams play, the game carries weight. The winner is expected to have the inside track for the league title. Both teams still have La Joya Palmview on the docket. Palmview is also 3-0 in district.
This is one of those cases, particularly coming off last season, when Memorial spoiled McHi’s bid for an undefeated regular season with a classic 50-48 win.
“It lingers from what happened last year and being a city rivalry,” McHi quarterback Fred Hover said. “We know they’re a good team; that obviously raises the stakes a little bit. But you try not to get too involved in that and try to take it as just another team in your way trying to stop us from getting our district title.”
McAllen Memorial has won the last four meetings. And these two teams are pretty much the same as last season.
The Mustangs boast All-Valley stud Trevor Speights, an Arizona commit who was recently offered by Tennessee. He is their workhorse, a first-down simply whenever he touches the ball. Their defense has improved since the Week 1 defeat at Sharyland, and the passing game has shown inklings of promise.
The Bulldogs are once again carried by Hover and running back Ricky Rodriguez. Memorial coach Bill Littleton said McHi is no stranger — the Bulldogs are well-coached, methodical, fundamental. McHi’s defense has progressed, with players more comfortable in the second year of defensive coordinator Tracey Hamilton.
Littleton said no one remembers his team’s four-game winning streak in the rivalry. They just remember the last game played, and that’s all that matters. McHi leads the all-time series 19-13.
“Any time you can win a ballgame, you always take pride in it,” Littleton said. “We’ve been fortunate enough that we’ve been able to win four in a row. Everybody just remembers the last game you played. They don’t remember the previous years.”
The M.O. for each team tonight is simple. Limit the big plays. Speights has his own personal highlight reel of back-breaking runs this season. And Hover and Rodriguez are each capable of making a defense look silly.
There are no surprises, no gimmicks. Each team will line up and be who it is. Try and stop it.
“We’re going to do what we do, we’re not going to change anything,” Brewer said.
And the idea for McHi is that no change leads to a change on the scoreboard.
“That loss really stuck with me,” Rodriguez said, “and I don’t really want to do it again.”
Monitor writers Greg Luca and Jon LaFollette contributed to this report