By Jesus Sanchez
Staff Writer
For more than 20 years, the Hanna Golden Eagles had not won a playoff game.
That all changed Friday night at Sams Memorial Stadium with a 35-20 Class 6A Division II bi-district victory over the Weslaco East Wildcats.
“I’m still trying to soak it all in,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “We hadn’t won a playoff game here since 1996. I felt a lot of pressure just because of that. Our goal is, of course, to get to a state championship game, and no matter what anybody says, we still believe we can get there and we’re going to do our best to get there.”
Prior to Friday night’s game, Weslaco East, which finished third in District 31-6A, was considered to have one of, if not the top, defensive units in the district, allowing only 183.4 yards per game.
Hanna, however, finished the game with 310 yards of offense, 229 rushing and 81 passing.
Victor Campos and the Hanna offensive line allowed running backs Aaron Frausto and Cesar Mancias to make big plays for the Eagles.
“It was a smashmouth game,” the Eagles’ Doug Tolman said. “It was all between the lines, and I think our line, we stepped up this game. We just hope we get some respect because no one ever talks about the O-line or D-line, but I think we did very well this time.”
Frausto ended the night with three touchdowns, two 1-yard runs to go along with a 6-yard reception from Campos, and Mancias broke free from the Wildcats twice to score long rushing TDs.
Mancias first found the end zone on a 45-yard run, then, after the Eagles forced a three-and-out, he rushed for 30 yards to give Hanna its last score of the night.
The Wildcats struck first in the game after Ramsey Vasquez scored on a 30-yard run on his team’s first drive.
“It was a good game,” Vasquez said. “We fought till the end, but mistakes we made didn’t help us. The ball didn’t roll our way and that’s it. That’s what happened.”
Hanna responded with Campos’ 6-yard pass to Frausto. The home team then took the lead after Frausto hit paydirt again for the Eagles, on a 1-yard run, to make it 14-7.
“Tonight was just all hard work,” he said. “We really played as a unit today, and that’s why we were able to get this victory over a very good Weslaco East team.”
From there, the Eagles were one step ahead of the Wildcats for the remainder of the game.
The Eagles extended their lead to 21-7 with another 1-yard run by Frausto. Weslaco East closed the gap a bit after Vasquez ran 2 yards to the end zone late in the third, making it 21-14.
Mancias’ two TDs were enough to spell the end for the Wildcats.
Weslaco East added a 2-yard run by Josh Gonzalez but failed on its two-point conversion attempt, leaving the final score 35-20.
“Tonight, the team that played better won,” Wildcats coach Michael Burget said. “Hanna definitely played better. We turned (over) the ball quite a bit, but my hat is off to them. They scored when they had to. I think we left our defense on the field too long, too many turnovers and stuff.
“It’s been like that all year. We’ve leaned on them, but (Hanna) scored 35 points on our defense and they scored 35 points on our team, which is a little bit hard to swallow as a head coach. Hanna has a great team. I wish coach Guess the best of luck in the next round. We’ll be back.”
Hanna will travel next week to San Antonio to face Eagle Pass, which defeated the PSJA High Bears on Friday night.
For Hanna, Frausto said the Eagles’ mentality will remain the same as it has all season.
“We just have to keep our mindset straight and not get too overconfident, practice well every day, all three days,” he said. “We’re going to head over to San Antonio, and we have to make sure we play as a team. That’s the No. 1 thing that we have to do.”
Guess is proud of the team but realizes there is still work left for the Eagles.
“We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing and minimize pre-snap penalties and mistakes that we shouldn’t be making at this point in the season,” he said. “That comes from lack of focus or sometimes from anxiety, but we just have to buckle down and nail that stuff down a little better.”