BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
Mercedes faced Corpus Christi Calallen, McAllen Rowe and Weslaco High during its non-district schedule and averaged 18.3 points per game. Still, coach Roger Adame Jr. knew he had a prolific offense, even if the season didn’t start that way.
“We played some pretty tough teams in the preseason in order to get ready for our district opponents,” Adame said.
The Tigers (7-2) have since won five of six district games, scoring 34 points or more in all five victories, including two 50-plus point efforts.
“We also wanted to find out what we did well in the preseason, and what we found out was that we could run the ball pretty well,” Adame said. “We thought our passing game was going to be one of our strong suits going into the season, and we’ve found the right combination of both.”
Senior quarterback Marc Ledesma has made the biggest turnaround since district play began, throwing 10 of his 12 touchdown passes in the last six games.
“Marc’s been our leader since Day 1,” Adame said. “He wants to know every possible scenario that he could find himself in and what reads he’d need to make. Our offensive coordinator, Coach (Don) Smith, has done a great job working with Marc and with our offense overall.”