BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — McAllen Memorial’s Trevor Speights said he felt off during Friday’s first half — a period in which he ripped off a 59-yard touchdown and gained 120 yards.
That’s the type of standard Speights has set in three years with the Mustangs, and a bar he continued to raise on the first night of his senior season.
Speights finished the game with 253 yards and three touchdowns, leading McAllen Memorial to a 42-18 win against Sharyland High at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The loss was the Rattlers’ first to a Valley team since 2011.
“I felt like we should’ve got them last year, but the second year is just as good as the first,” Speights said. “I’ll take it.”
Speights, the defending two-time All-Valley player of the year, scored from 59 yards out on the second play from scrimmage, taking a toss to the left before cutting back to the middle and splitting the safeties.
He picked up a 62-yard score in the third quarter, breaking through a crowd at the line before sprinting down the left sideline. He completed the hat trick a few minutes later, lining up at fullback and bulldozing his way past the goal line from 6 yards out.
Speights said he needed a few plays to adjust to running with some extra muscle. He enters 2015 weighing 205 pounds after being listed at 185 on the 2014 roster.
“The second half, it felt like my game was coming back to me,” Speights said. “I just felt kind of heavy, but then I got used to it.”
The game came back to all of the Mustangs in the second half. After Sharyland High took an 18-14 lead into halftime, Memorial scored 28 unanswered.
Over the final 24 minutes, the Mustangs outgained the Rattlers 304 — all rushing — to 47.
“They did an outstanding job early, and we just kind of wore them out a little bit with body on body,” McAllen Memorial coach Bill Littleton said. “We just kept trying to pound them, and we got to them in the second half.”
Littleton said he told the safeties to read pass before they read run, and linebacker Sam Hinojosa said the key was riding out the first-game jitters and limiting the big play.
“We eliminated that in the second half, and that’s what made the difference,” Hinojosa said.
After the speed of Sharyland High’s linebackers kept Memorial under wraps in the first half, the Mustangs turned to pounding the ball up the middle.
Although the biggest play of the half was Eric Guerrero’s 79-yard touchdown on a reverse to stretch the lead to 35-18, the majority of Memorial’s carries went between the tackles. Jonathan Sanchez had 11 rushes for 73 yards and a touchdown from the quarterback position, and Emilio Mendez ran 11 times for 82 yards, including the 23-yard score with 1:30 left to play that proved to be the dagger.
The Rattlers hadn’t been beaten by a Valley team since Week 7 of 2011, a 28-14 loss also against McAllen Memorial.
“I don’t think we’ve ever even talked about that in the last couple of years,” Sharyland High coach Ron Adame said. “It’s not anything we harp on with our boys. We just take it one game at time.”
SHARYLAND’S OFFENSE
Seth Carter led the Rattlers in passing, rushing and receiving on Friday. He ran 8 times for 54 yards and two touchdowns, completed 9 of 18 passes for 107 yards and caught a 46-yard pass.
Manny Campos also took snaps at quarterback for Sharyland, completing 4 of 11 passes for 64 yards. He also ran for 18 yards and caught 2 passes for 11 yards.
Adame said the Rattlers are using the non-district games to determine their best option under center.
INJURED MUSTANGS
Memorial was without returning starters WR DJ Johnson (concussion) and DE Paul Zuniga (ankle) for Friday’s game as a result of injuries suffered during the team’s preseason scrimmage.
UP NEXT
McAllen Memorial will face Edinburg Economedes on the road at 2 p.m. Saturday, and Sharyland High will host Laredo United at 7:30 p.m. Friday.