KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN—After a wild shootout that saw Harlingen escape with a 42-41 win against Sharyland Pioneer, the Cardinals will host a familiar opponent in Laredo United South tonight at Boggus Stadium at 7:30 p.m. in this week’s Valley Morning Star Game of the Week.
The Cards have won the last two meetings against United South. In 2017, the Cards won 20-6 and walked away with a 17-9 win last season.
United South will make the trip to the Rio Grande Valley after getting thumped by San Antonio Wagner 42-7.
“The word is physical — they are physical on both sides of the ball,” said Harlingen coach Manny Gomez. “That is what caught my attention when I saw them play in the playoffs against McAllen Memorial a few years ago. They have an aggressive style, they fly around and play the game right.”
The Cardinal offense will look to pick up where they left off after a 42-point performance in Week 1. The offense shook off a slow start and racked up 544 total yards with 188 yards passing and 356 rushing.
Working on a short week, the Cards have been in this position before in preparing for a Thursday night game.
“Everything gets bumped up today with a Thursday game,” said Gomez. “Today, we had to cut our practice short, we usually get our practice done in the morning. Today we were able to get in the gym and work on some things, but this will be a fun week for us.”
One thing that stood out was the 41 points Harlingen gave up. Big Red’s defense gave up 163 rushing yards and 301 yards through the air, albeit against one of the area’s top signal callers in Pioneer QB Eddie Marburger. The Cardinal secondary is still young and are gaining experience through the non-district portion of the season.
“It was a little bit of both,” Gomez said. “Their offense was that good and we were learning some leverages and those are things we preach about in practice. Sometimes, the kids forget, but it is about us maintaining the leverage. But give Pioneer credit; that kid can sling it if you give him time he will hit his wideouts. We are young in the back end, but we lived and we survived and we learned. Cardinal defense, you don’t hear us giving up that many points, but it is what it is. We give credit when credit is due.”
Thursday will also mark the Cardinals regular season home opener before hitting the road over the next two weeks with games at Converse Judson and Weslaco East.