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McAllen Memorial racked up four touchdowns before allowing a first down, cruising past La Joya Palmview 70-28 in the District 30-6A opener for both teams Friday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“Any time you get in a district ball game and get a big win and score like we did and play like we did, I’ll take that every week,” Memorial coach Bill Littleton said.
Campbell Speights ran for 178 yards and three touchdowns, Emilio Mendez had 130 yards and three touchdowns, and sophomore backup quarterback Shawn Skaugen had 150 yards and two scores.
JoJo Williams also found the end zone for the Mustangs, and starting quarterback Angel Almaguer threw a touchdown pass to Will Garcia.
“In all three phases of our football game, we played pretty well,” Littleton said.
Memorial improves to 3-2 overall, while Palmview falls to 1-4, 0-1 in district.
McALLEN ROWE 17, LA JOYA JUAREZ-LINCOLN 14: At La Joya, Rowe remained undefeated on the year, moving to 4-0 by winning its District 30-6A opener against Juarez-Lincoln.
The Huskies drop to 2-3, 0-1 in district.
EDINBURG VELA 42, EDINBURG NORTH 23: At Edinburg, Robert Guerra scored three times on the ground to lead the SaberCats to a win in their district opener.
Teammate Christian Flores rushed for another score and Brandon Guzman hauled in another TD, helping atone for Vela’s errors in the first half in which fumbled the ball three times in the opening half.
“Our kids were resilient and they battled,” SaberCats coach Michael Salinas said. “We told them to take advantage of possessions. We squandered three of those with fumbles, so that’s something we’re going to have to fix. We can’t win ball games doing that. So we’re fortunate to come away with a win.”
Vela improved to 3-1 on the season, while Edinburg North dropped to 0-4.
PSJA SOUTHWEST 20, PSJA HIGH 17: At Pharr, Justin Corona scored the go-winning touchdown on a 10-yard run to lead the Javelinas in both teams’ district opener.
“Justin had a determined game,” Southwest coach Jesus Reyes said. “He took the offense on his shoulders and did a good job.”
Southwest improved to 3-1 on the season, while PSJA High fell to 2-2 overall.
“It’s a confidence-booster for us,” Reyes said. “Our kids are really confident, but they’re level-headed. They’ll enjoy tonight but they know tomorrow it’s right back to work.”
CLASS 5A
RIO GRANDE CITY 24, ROMA 21: At Roma, Danny Perez’s 24-yard field goal with about four minutes left proved to be the game-winner in another intense chapter of the Starr County rivalry.
The Rattlers led 14-7 at halftime, but saw Roma score two quick touchdowns to take a 21-14 lead late in the game. But defensive lineman Javier Garcia blocked a punt that led to Javi Garcia’s touchdown reception and Perez ended the dramatics with his leg.
“Our kids showed a lot of character coming back,” RGC coach Aaron Garcia said. “I’m real proud.”
Perez, who was banged up last week and missed an offensive series early in the game, threw two touchdowns. His backup, Armando Gonzalez, threw another TD pass, also to Javi Garcia.
“This was a special game for both teams,” Garcia said. “What I was really proud of it was a total team effort. That’s what we harped on all along. You take a guy like Armando Gonzalez who comes in and executed beautifully.”
MERCEDES 31, DONNA HIGH 0: At Mercedes, Mark Ledesma threw for more than 270 yards and rushed for 66 more in leading the Tigers without starting quarterback Zach Gomez, who continues to recover from a sprained shoulder suffered two weeks ago.
Gomez is day-to-day and expected to back next week.
Mark’s brother, Matt, caught two touchdown passes and Joe Garcia caught another. Fabian Ledesma ran in a touchdown score.
It was the first win for Mercedes, which started the season 0-3 but won its district opener.
“It’s been rough,” coach Roger Adame Jr. said. “We did this on purpose as far as setting our non-district schedule, seeing tough opponents early that tested us. We were in each game and it prepared us for our district. That was the whole goal. It was a great win, it’s been a long three weeks and to open up district against the reigning district champs … this is a great win.”
EDCOUCH-ELSA 45, DONNA NORTH 12: At Elsa, the Yellowjackets improved to 3-1 and won their district opener.
Running back Jorge Gomez rushed for more than 150 yards and three touchdowns.
“It was a total team effort,” E-E coach Joe Marichalar said. “We had two things to concentrate on — teamwork and discipline. We evaluate ourselves before our opponent, and going off last week’s win (at La Joya Juarez-Lincoln), we looked and we wanted to fix our problems. Those were the two we felt we could do a better job on. For the most part, everybody did their part and that was the plus.”
Donna North lost for the second time in the last three games. The Chiefs are 1-3 overall.
CLASS 2A
MONTE ALTO 42, BENAVIDES 21: At Benavides, the Blue Devils improved to 2-2 on the season with a win on the road.