By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
The Hanna Golden Eagles opened defense of their District 32-6A championship with a 35-14 victory against the Rivera Raiders on Thursday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
It was The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week.
Hanna improved to 3-3 on the season and 1-0 in district. Rivera slipped to 1-5 and 0-1.
“It’s been kind of the same for us about every game,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “We tend to have kind of a slow start in the first half offensively, and then we make a couple of adjustments at halftime (and play better in the second half).
“The big thing (tonight) is we kept playing hard,” Guess added. “These players don’t get down. They stay level-headed and keep playing the way you ask them to. Nobody gets down, and nobody gets too high (when we’re winning). We just try to put points on the scoreboard.”
The Eagles got on the scoreboard first and led 7-0 with 9:17 showing in the first quarter when Sabian Arceneaux broke loose around the right side and sprinted into the end zone from 11 yards out. Tommy Green added the extra point.
Rivera tied it at 7 at the 3:19 mark of the opening period when quarterback Chito Perez scored on a 1-yard keeper. Kevin Zarrazagas kicked the extra point to create the tie.
That’s the way the first-half score ended as the Raiders failed on a 43-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of the second quarter.
Hanna broke it open during the third quarter as QB Victor Campos scored on runs of 1 and 4 yards to boost the lead to 21-7 before Rivera QB Perez found the end zone on a 41-yard scramble to close the gap to 21-14 by the end of the period.
Hanna added a pair of TDs during the final period to pull away. Campos threw a 7-yard scoring pass to Manny Gonzalez early in the fourth quarter and then went into the end zone on a 12-yard keeper with 5:46 remaining to account for the final score of 35-14.
“Our goal this week, and all we spoke about, was to get to 1-0 in district,” Guess said. “Every win in district is so important because it’s such a tight district. It’s still anybody’s championship to win.
“We just felt that if we harped on being 1-0, 1-0 and 1-0, we’d eventually get to 1-0,” Guess added. “We played hard the second half tonight. The players came back and got the job done.
“We’ve got a good Harlingen (High) team next, so we’ve got to be ready.”
Both teams were coming off bye weeks.
In their most recent games prior to Thursday, Hanna lost to Amarillo Tascosa 55-7 on Sept. 28 at Abilene Christian University, while Rivera lost 55-7 to La Feria on Sept. 26 at Sams.
District action continues next Thursday when Rivera plays host to Los Fresnos at Sams and next Friday when Hanna plays at Harlingen High.
When Hanna played Rivera last year at Sams, the Eagles won 48-0.