HARLINGEN — What looked like a shootout in the making between the Harlingen South Hawks and the Edinburg Vela SaberCats quickly slowed into a defensive struggle.
After leading by one score for most of the second and third quarter, the SaberCats scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns to put the Hawks away 42-17 Friday night at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen.
Both teams exchanged scores on their first two drives of the game to make it 14-14 in the first, but the SaberCats’ (2-0) defense and special teams helped shift the momentum and win the field position battle.
“We gave up some stuff early and we lined up wrong a couple of times, but I don’t want to take anything away from Harlingen South. They’re well coached and resilient,” Vela head coach Michael Salinas said. “Fortunately for us our defense was opportunistic. We place a high emphasis on special teams and we talk about winning the hidden yardage battle. I think we did that tonight.”
It was a mix of good and bad for the Hawks (1-1) and head coach Lanny Wilson.
The Hawks looked sharp as they moved down the field in the first quarter for a pair of scores, only to put up just three points the rest of the way.
Wilson and the Hawks will go to the tape this week and take this game as a learning experience.
“Edinburg Vela has a good football team. They exposed some mistakes and were a good team and they in non-district. We have a lot of work to do and we’ll get it done,” Wilson said. “All three phases of the game we had trouble with tonight. We have to fix the special teams, offense and defense, so we’ll go to the tape.”
Quarterback Jimmy Morton and running back Steven Rodriguez led the Hawks in the first quarter.
Morton, who finished with 245 yards on 12 of 22 passing, opened the game with a 71-yard touchdown drive, capped off with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Alec Garza.
Rodriguez followed on the next drive with a seven-yard run for a score and that would be pretty much it for the Hawks as the SaberCats outscored them 35-3 from there on out.
The tide turned when Vela blocked South’s first punt in the early second quarter and turned the ensuing drive into a 21-14 lead they would not relinquish.
The Vela defense kept the Hawks at bay and the door for their offense, led by senior running back Anthony Arredondo who ran for 109 yards on 17 carries and scored four touchdowns, was wide open.
Two of those touchdowns came in the fourth quarter on one-yard runs.
“The field position gave us an advantage and helped us keep the scoring up,” Arredondo said. “We just studied what their linebackers and their defense was doing and we went from there.”