By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Hanna fell behind early and didn’t catch up against Harlingen High.
The Golden Eagles struggled to find a rhythm offensively and found themselves behind early in the first half in a 31-14 loss to the Cardinals in a District 32-6A game Saturday afternoon at Sams Memorial Stadium.
“We got down early on two mistakes that we made,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “When you’re playing a good football team like Harlingen, you make those simple mistakes and they make you pay for them.”
Down 28-0 through three quarters, Hanna (3-6, 2-4) rallied in the fourth quarter with a pair of touchdown runs by running back Jaime Gonzalez, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the early deficit against Harlingen High (7-2, 6-0).
The Eagles found themselves down in a hurry.
The Hanna defense got tied up and Harlingen High took advantage on the first play of the game as quarterback Jesse Castro hit a wide open Kaynon Fuentes on a 66-yard pass play for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 11:41 left in the opening quarter.
The Eagles fumbled on their first drive and gave the ball back to the Cardinals at the Hanna 39-yard line. Harlingen capitalized as Castro hit Jeriel Cervantes on a 4-yard pass to take a 14-0 edge with 7:24 left in the first.
Hanna struggled to get going offensively, as it earned just two first downs, threw an interception and punted on five straight drives in the first half.
The Cardinals added a score with les than two minutes remaining in the first half as Castro threw a 31-yard strike to Ryan Villarreal for a 21-0 cushion at the break.
“We just executed (Saturday),” Harlingen coach Manny Gomez said. “There were certain things we saw and prepared for. It was just execution. There’s great coaches on both sides and after a while they were able to capitalize and make some plays themselves.
“It’s football, it’s a chess match.”
After returning a punt to the Hanna 3-yard line, the Cardinals extended their lead with a 3-yard pass from Samuel Duffy to Castro for a 28-0 advantage with 7:37 to go in the third quarter.
Castro finished with 165 yards and three touchdowns through the air, ran for 53 yards and caught a pass for a touchdown for the visitors.
The Cardinals pushed the advantage to 31-0 with a 31-yard field goal by Giovanni Guillen at the start of the fourth quarter.
Hanna quickly answered after Gonzalez broke loose for a 66-yard run for a touchdown with 11:20 left to play. After a Harlingen punt, Gonzalez found the end zone again after a 23-yard run to cut the deficit to 31-14 with 5:35 left to go. But the Cardinals would run out the clock to quell the rally and seal the district victory.
Gonzalez, the District 32-6A leading rusher, finished with 169 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground for Hanna.
With the win, Harlingen set itself up for a showdown next week with San Benito for the outright district title. The Cardinals will savor the win against Hanna briefly, as their eyes are now on the prize next week.
“It’s a big game, but every week’s a big game; it’s the next one up,” Gomez said about the game against the Greyhounds. “We’re going to take it a day at a time. We’ll enjoy this one for a little bit and come Monday we get ready to rock and roll.”
Hanna also controls its own destiny. The Eagles along with Weslaco East, Los Fresnos and Weslaco High are still looking to clinch a playoff berth. Hanna faces Weslaco East on the road and Los Fresnos plays host to Weslaco High in Week 11 — two games and two postseason spots on the line.
“We have to have a short memory about the last two weeks. We can’t do anything about those,” Guess said. “We have to get ready for a good Weslaco East ball club. That’s all we can ask for is a shot to get in (the playoffs) at this point. Last game of the year. We have to take advantage of what we can control.”
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.