MARK MOLINA | The Brownsville Herald
The Los Fresnos Falcons were not looked at as the favorite to walk away with a fifth straight District 32-6A championship in a row this season, but after two games, they find themselves alone atop the standings.
Getting there has been far from easy as they topped Harlingen High on the road to open district play on Friday and escaped Hanna at home with a 57-52 win in overtime.
It’s a good step forward, but Falcons’ head coach Marco Hinojosa said there is still work to be done.
“ I know we’ve started 2-0, but it doesn’t mean anything,” the Los Fresnos coach said. “It’s just two games with eight remaining and anything can happen over the next eight games. But the team is doing well and they believe in what we are doing. We take each week one game at a time. The kids are buying into what we’re doing and it’s working so far.”
Despite a new-look team with players like Jordan Urbina, Andrew Carrizales and Gabe Martinez now gone, Hinojosa said the system and foundation he and his staff have in place have helped the Falcons weather obstacles big and small.
For example, not only have the first two wins been against two tough opponents, but Friday’s win against Harlingen High was with assistant Alex Lucio on the bench as Hinojosa sat out with an illness.
“ Whether I’m on the bench or not — I was at most of the practices — the team knows what to do,” Hinojosa said. “The system has been there the last six years and we don’t change the way we play. That’s what helps us out a lot. Some of these kids have been with us for two years now and some are new. The system goes from the top to the bottom, so our kids know what to do.”
The Falcons face 0-2 San Benito on the road Friday night before hosting another big matchup with Harlingen South on Tuesday night.
Despite being winless in district play, San Benito played close games with Hanna and Rivera.
Hinojosa said his team is doing their homework for Friday night and not Tuesday.
“ We’re focusing on San Benito, we’re not focusing on Harlingen South,” Hinojosa said. “I know (San Benito) has not played to their full potential and (head coach Eddie Abrego) does a good job with them. They could easily be 2-0 right now. They barely lost to Hanna and they barely lost to Rivera, so they’re due. We’re not taking them lightly. We’re preparing for them like we were preparing for an Austin Westlake; we don’t take anybody lightly.”
A GOOD LOSS?
The Pace Vikings are another team coming in on a hot start as they opened District 32-5A 5-0 before falling to Brownsville Veterans Memorial 67-54 Tuesday.
It was the first district loss for the defending district champion Vikings since the 2016-17 season.
While the Vikings can’t repeat as undefeated district champions like a year ago, head coach Jose Luis Ramirez said he isn’t losing sleep with a lot of basketball to be played.
In fact, he views it as somewhat as a positive.
“ We always talk about that as coaches,” Ramirez said. “We want to go out and win every single ballgame, but the bottom line is that it tends to build pressure. It becomes a big worry and all of a sudden you’re playing not to lose instead of playing the game and I think this takes some of the pressure off. I told my assistant that the district champion isn’t going to be undefeated. Teams are too tough in our district and anybody can beat anybody. It was one loss and we’ll take it. We’ll learn from it and it’ll make us stronger.”
The Vikings hope to get back in the win column against Edcouch-Elsa on Friday night with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m. at Pace High School.