KEVIN NARRO | Valley Morning Star
McALLEN — If there was any question on how Harlingen South would fair in its season opener, the Hawks’ opening drive foreshadowed the outcome.
Senior running back Jorge Alicea and the Hawks marched down the field and scored on their opening drive via an Alicea 33-yard scamper. With the tone set, South ran over McAllen High 34-21 Friday night at McAllen Veteran Memorial Stadium.
The Hawks (1-0) have now beaten McHi (0-1) in consecutive seasons. Alicea ran for 225 yards on 19 carries and scored three times.
“We talked about not having a scrimmage, but our kids showed up and preformed,” said Hawks coach Brian Ricci. “I was extremely proud. (Jorge) is a really good player and our offensive line did a great job tonight blocking. They opened up some lanes for him.”
Harlingen South scored on each of its first three possessions. A 22-yard field goal from Jose Lerma gave the Green Birds a 10-0 lead with 4:06 left in the first quarter.
South continued to feed Alicea and on its third drive he sniffed the end zone from 11-yards out making it 17-0 Hawks with 3:21 left in the first quarter.
The Hawks defense added to the scoring with a 61-yard pick six by Jose Lara giving the Hawks a comfortable 24-0 lead early in the second quarter.
McHi’s Gunnar Henderson scored the first two touchdowns for the Bulldogs. Henderson’s first score made it a 24-7 game and his second score came through the air in the third quarter making it a 31-14 game.
On the first drive of the second half, Lara picked off his second pass of the night setting up the Hawks deep in Bulldog territory. Alicea found pay dirt for the third time, this time from 17-yards out, extending South’s lead 31-7.
“We played a great game, we stayed focused and did our job,” Alicea said. “Offensively, we took it one play at a time and as the game went, the ball just went our way. Overall, I feel great and I’m excited to get our first win. We did make some mistakes, but we will get better and get back to work Monday.”
In the second half, Alicea’s only blemish was a fumble in the third quarter. McHi’s Daniel Chiquito recovered the fumble and returned it for the score cutting the lead 31-21 with 11:15 in the fourth quarter. However that’s as close as the Bulldogs got.
“At halftime we had a little clock management issue so I told the kids there is a lot of football left and they (McHi) won’t quit,” said Ricci. “We had to keep the pedal to the metal and we did. I was very happy with that. They (McHi) have a lot of good athletes, they’re quick and I felt we did a good job on stopping the run, and our secondary did a really good job containing them.”