By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
District 32-6A vs. District 2-6A Week is back.
To avoid a scheduling quandary last year, regardless of the travel involved, five teams from 32-6A agreed to take on opponents from 2-6A.
Both districts had scheduled open dates the following week prior to the start of conference play, so they didn’t want to be without games during back-to-back weeks.
District 2-6A is considered a stronghold of traditionally successful Texas high school football that includes schools such as Odessa Permian, Odessa High, Midland Lee, Midland High and Amarillo Tascosa.
Out of the five matchups between 32-6A and 2-6A last year, the only Rio Grande Valley team to win was Hanna. The Golden Eagles defeated Tascosa 35-19 in San Antonio. Despite the loss, Tascosa went on to advance to the 6A Division II state semifinals. Hanna made it to the third round of the playoffs in 6A Division II.
Now teams from the two districts are ready to match up again.
Hanna (2-2) plays Tascosa (3-1) at 5 p.m. Saturday at Abilene Christian University.
Tascosa is playing with a lot of confidence after having made it to the state semifinals last year,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “The game gives us a chance to see Tascosa’s triple option (offense) before we see it against Los Fresnos in our district.
“This will be a good road trip and give our players a chance to bond,” Guess added. “We’ll leave on Friday and come back on Sunday. We’ll be playing at Abilene Christian’s brand-new stadium.”
In other 32-6A vs. 2-6A matchups this week, it’s Los Fresnos (1-3) at Odessa Permian (1-3) at 7 p.m. Friday, Midland High (1-3) at Harlingen High (3-1) at 11 a.m. Saturday, San Benito (2-2) at Midland Lee (4-0) at 11 a.m. Saturday and Harlingen South (2-2) at Odessa High (1-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
San Benito faces perhaps the toughest challenge as undefeated Midland Lee is ranked No. 21 in 6A by the Associated Press this week.
Hanna is coming off last week’s 22-17 victory at Sharyland High. The Eagles are on a two-game winning streak after having beaten Weslaco East 21-19 on Sept. 14.
“Our defense has been hot lately, and our offense has still been having some struggles,” Guess said. “We’re a young team, but we’re not going to use that as an excuse. We still have to get better.
“We’re still going to put the ball in the end zone with who we have out there on the field,” Guess added. “We’re getting better. We need to get better.”
The only team from 32-6A not going against a 2-6A opponent this week is Rivera.
The Raiders (1-3) play host to La Feria (4-0) at 7 p.m. today at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville. The non-district game originally was scheduled to be played in La Feria.
This week’s District 16-5A Division I action gets underway at 7 p.m. today with Lopez (0-4 overall, 0-3 district) playing at Donna High (1-3, 0-3). Also in 16-5A Division I action at 7:30 p.m. Friday, it’s Mission Veterans Memorial (3-1, 3-0) vs. Porter (2-2, 1-2) at Sams, Brownsville Veterans Memorial (3-1, 2-1) at Rio Grande City (3-1, 2-1) and La Joya Palmview (2-2, 2-1) at PSJA Southwest (3-1, 2-1).
At 7 p.m. Saturday at Sams, Pace (3-1, 3-0) plays host to PSJA Memorial (0-4, 0-3) in 16-5A Division I action.
Besides today’s Porter-La Feria game, another non-district contest matching area teams at 7:30 p.m. Friday finds St. Joseph Academy (2-2) at Port Isabel (1-3).