MARK MOLINA | STAFF WRITER
Despite taking a 42-40 loss to McAllen Memorial in Week 1, the Hanna Golden Eagles head coach Mark Guess took solace in the effort his players showed after being down 14 points twice in that contest.
The strong finish was important for the psyche of a young Eagles squad.
“The biggest thing we took out of it was that the kids played hard,” Guess said. “They never hung their heads and they never quit. We realized that we can be a very good football team if we eliminated mistakes, even with our youth. We’re not going to use that as an excuse, we have 11 guys on the field who have to get it done. The main thing is staying positive no matter what happens and keep working to minimize mistakes.”
The Eagles (0-1) will need to play at their best if they hope to avoid an 0-2 start as they host Edinburg Vela tonight The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week set for 7 p.m. at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Vela (1-0) comes in riding high after a 51-46 win against Laredo United last week, led by junior quarterback Anthony Sotelo, who threw for 251 yards, five touchdowns and an interception on a 16-for-24 passing night.
Sotelo and his senior receiver duo of Justin Cantu (9-142, 2 TDs) and Kevin Rojas (4-50, 2 TDs) pose a big threat through the air for an Eagles defense that allowed just 69 yards passing and forced four turnovers against Memorial, but were gashed for 367 yards and five touchdowns on the ground.
Guess said they key will be competing against a big Vela offensive line.
“(Cantu) is a player and Sotelo does a great job at getting the ball to him,” Guess said. “They are huge upfront and it’s like playing a college offensive line when it comes to their tackles and guards. Their center is the smallest one, but he gets after it better than anyone else on that football team; we have our hands full. The great thing is that our kids are ready to play and we know we can play with them. In the last two years, we have played with them. We have to take care of business, minimize mistakes and give great relentless effort.”
Vela’s defense also had a big night, forcing an interception, recovering a fumble and recording six sacks against United.
That’s what Hanna’s offense, led by senior quarterback Victor Campos, who is coming off a big night against Memorial, will face. The senior signal caller passed for 211 yards, two touchdowns, an interception and rushed for 116 more yards and three more scores.
Campos’ top targets were Ernesto Mendoza (6-77, TD) and Josiah Meyers (2-36, TD), but found six different receivers on the night despite going just 17 of 34 through the air.
“We have to do a better job of catching the catchable balls,” Guess said. “We dropped a few too many the other night, but I think we’ll have that taken care of. Victor not only does a good job of spreading the ball around, but he poses an issue with his legs. I think he proved teams will have a hard time containing them. We made some mistakes the other night that we shouldn’t have made, but that’s high school football. We just have to back, clean up those mistakes and hopefully, we can put the ball in the end zone more than they do.”