By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial fell behind early but came back when it counted.
The Chargers were behind by a pair of scores during the first half, but quarterback Marcus Castillo scored three touchdowns in the second half and Brownsville Veterans defeated Harlingen South 35-28 in each team’s District 32-6A opener Friday at Sams Memorial Stadium.
“This is kind of what I anticipated, going down to the wire, because I felt we were very evenly matched,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “I think we were feeling confident. Our defense had a couple back-to-back stops, so I felt we were going to get the ball back with an opportunity to win it.”
Castillo scored four touchdowns on the ground — including the game winner with eight seconds left — and threw for another score to lead the Chargers. The senior ran for 141 yards and threw for 141 yards in the comeback victory.
“I felt like if we got the ball back we had to take a chance,” he said of the team’s final drive. “We had to take our shots. We had to keep driving, get out of bounds and do whatever it took to score the touchdown. I’m very proud of my team.”
Harlingen South scored on its first drive of the game. Brandon Villarreal found Darren Perez on a 49-yard strike, and the Hawks took an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
Brownsville Veterans put together a nice drive of its own, and Castillo found Jeremiah Meyers on a slant that resulted in a 16-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7.
During the second quarter, the Hawks scored twice within three minutes. Steven Rodriguez tallied on a 2-yard run and Villarreal found Perez again for an 82-yard catch and run as Harlingen South took a 21-7 lead.
The Chargers answered quickly. Castillo found the end zone after a 13-yard scamper, but the Hawks took a 21-14 lead into the break.
Castillo scored a touchdown on a 7-yard run during the third quarter to tie the game at 21. Harlingen South scored later in the quarter on a 74-yard pass from Villarreal to Alec Garza to take a 28-21 lead.
During the fourth, Castillo scored again on an 8-yard run, but the point-after attempt was missed and Brownsville Veterans trailed 28-27 midway through the quarter. It looked as that was going to be the difference until Castillo drove the Chargers down the field late in the fourth and scored on a 5-yard run for the game winner.
“It is (heartbreaking). They’re 4-0, and they have a great quarterback,” Harlingen South coach Lanny Wilson said. “I’ve coached 29 years and I’ve won a whole bunch of those games, and I’ve lost ’em and it’s going to happen.”
Wilson said people could always ask, “What if?”
“I’m going to give a bunch of credit to (Brownsville Veterans). We’re going to fix mistakes and we’re going to keep going,” he said. “We can second-guess, (there are) a lot of things we could have done differently as a staff, as a team. We could have won the game easily, too. That’s just the way football goes sometimes. You don’t like it, but that’s the way it goes.”
Cantu said the team never panicked down the stretch or during the final drive.
“We practice up-tempo every single day, no-huddle stuff, so our kids were so used to doing that,” he said. “So going down there with a little bit of time was something we had prepared well for. I feel we absolutely earned (the victory). Harlingen South is coached tremendously well and it’s tough, our district is difficult and every win is going to be earned.”
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.