NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — Just like McAllen Memorial junior running back Campbell Speights on his 18-yard run to opening the scoring against McAllen Rowe, the Mustangs wouldn’t be denied a ninth straight playoff appearance.
Memorial turned a halftime deficit to a comeback victory as the Mustangs topped the Warriors 21-14 on Friday night at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
After heading into the halftime break trailing by a score, Speights said his head coach didn’t need to yell or lose his temper. His team knew one of the two remaining playoff spots in District 30-6A entering Friday evening was at stake.
“It took reality,” Speights said. “Coach (Bill) Littleton walked in and he said “I could yell at you all I want…but it’s going to come down to who wants to be in the playoffs.’ We knew that this game was that deciding factor. That sprung us and we were like ‘You know what? We need to win if we want to keep on playing.’ So that’s what we did in the second half.”
Speights found the end zone on runs from 4 yards in the third quarter and 7 yards with 7:44 to play in the game.
As the game went on, Speights found more success than when Rowe was able to contain the team’s top rusher in the first half. He ended the night with 187 yards on 31 attempts.
Speights took time to thank the big bodies of Memorial’s offensive line for allowing the offense to flourish.
“They’re really what get us going,” Speights said. “Me and (fullback) A.J. (Castro) and (quarterback Joseph) Lara, we get all this praise but really it comes down to what they do. It’s crucial in our offense because we like to control the line. When they allow us to do that and they play bully ball like they did today it makes it really easier for us backs to make plays.”
The road to the Mustangs win had plenty of speed bumps. Speights’ first touchdown was set up by a muffed punt that Quaid Murray recovered right outside of the red zone. A strong individual effort and multiple broken tackles put Speights in for the score.
Rowe wasn’t deterred and played strong on both sides of the ball.
Lalo Bosquez punched in a 7-yard scoring run on a long drive powered by a strong push at the line of scrimmage.
All signs pointed to 7-7 deadlock at the intermission, but Warriors sophomore quarterback James Gamez completed a perfect pass in stride to Ruben Salinas as time expired for a lead.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, who were also fighting for their playoff lives, they weren’t able to bottle that attack and score in the second half.
Gamez had 140 yards on 15 for 27 passing. Jonas Ortiz, Rowe’s starter for most of the season was out with an injury.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle with Memorial and the kids fought hard,” Rowe coach Bobby Flores said. “We preached that all week, that it was going to be a challenge and I can’t be prouder as a coach. It’s a hard loss but we’re going to learn from it.”
Rowe was without senior running back Lalo Bosquez because of an ejection after a post-whistle personal foul. He had a touchdown and interception in the first half.
Littleton, the veteran Mustangs coach, was wearing a smile after the game but didn’t shy away from the improvements he wants his team to make heading into the postseason.
“We didn’t have much of a passing attack because of the weather but we know we can,” Littleton said. “We have a lot of weapons and our kids are getting better every week. We have to block a little better and we missed major assignments tonight but hopefully, we’ll get this corrected this week.”
Mustangs senior offensive lineman Daniel Domian was glad that the team’s slow start didn’t cost Memorial to miss the playoff for the first time since 2009.
Memorial started 1-2 in non-district with losses to Edinburg Vela and Brownsville Hanna. They got off to a 1-2 start in 30-6A play with losses to La Joya High and PSJA High before closing the regular season on a four-game winning streak.
McAllen Memorial will represent 30-6A in Div. II as the second seed. The Mustangs will travel to take on Laredo Alexander on the road in the bi-district round.
“We just wanted it, we just wanted it so much more,” Domian said. “We had a rough start this season and we had to come out on top. We had to do it for each other, for our family for our coaches, everyone who put work into us and who we put work into we had to do it.”