By Andrew Crum
Staff Writer
Hanna struggled at times on both sides of the ball, but the Golden Eagles feel like they are where they want to be when the regular season opens up next week.
The Wolverines took advantage of missed tackles by the Eagles run defense and narrowly defeated Hanna 10-7 during four quarters of live action on Friday at the Brownsville Sports Park.
“It was a good scrimmage, they’re a good team,” Hanna coach Rene Medrano said. “We played everybody to get everyone on film and see what we have to put on the field next Thursday night.
“I think we are where we want to be.”
Hanna’s offense started out rolling. The Eagles covered 35 yards and had two first downs in its first three offensive plays. Later, they were later aided by a pass interference call that set them up on the 9-yard line. Two plays later, Fernando Mendez found paydirt from 1-yard out to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead.
Finally PSJA Memorial’s offense, led by the run option combination of quarterback John Anthony Saenz and running back Johnathan Trevino, was able to move the chains. Trevino ran the ball 11 times on the day and scored late in the second quarter on a 6-yard run to tie the game at 7.
“Offensively, we came out hot. Had a few drops from sure handed kids, both would have been first downs,” PSJA Memorial coach Gus Cavazos said. “We didn’t throw the ball as much as we wanted to, but we established the run. Johnathan did a great job of that.”
After a brief halftime, the teams utilized their backups, but neither found the end zone. The Wolverines found some success running the ball against Hanna backups and moved the ball down to inside the Hanna 5-yard line. The Eagles withstood the challenge, getting two tackles for a loss and forcing PSJA Memorial to kick a short field goal. The Wolverines took a 10-7 lead.
Both teams put back in the starters in the fourth quarter, but neither team took advantage. Both Hanna and PSJA Memorial stalled on drives turning the ball over on downs. The Eagles downfall may have been a number of sure catches that were dropped at the last minute.
“We had some things that were frustrating, we had some drops that killed us,” Medrano said. “Its not as if we weren’t there, we were right there. We just need to focus in, finish plays and do what we got to do.”
But Hanna had one last chance starting on its own 19-yard line late in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Andy Lopez used a mixture of passes and runs to keep the drive alive and into Wolverines territory. As Lopez tried to hit a receiver streaking down the sideline for a sure touchdown, Ismael Carrizales took it away for the interception and ended the Eagles chance for a comeback shortly before the end of the scrimmage.
Medrano felt the team was close to being ready for the start of the season.
“We need to make some adjustments, catch our breath,” he said. “I’m satisfied after these two scrimmages, but I know we still have a lot of work to do on some things.”
Cavazos was pleased with his team’s effort, but knows it doesn’t count until next week.
“We came out and pretty much did what we wanted to accomplish. Played a good tough team, played them strong, played a good close game. I’m pretty pleased overall,” he said. “Hanna has a good team, the coach does a helluva job with those guys, he always has. So to come out here and play them tough is pretty satisfying. But at the end of the day it’s still a scrimmage, you can’t get too excited.”
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.