McALLEN — Three of McAllen High’s first five contests of the 2021 season have been decided by one score or less. Thursday’s matchup against the Weslaco East Wildcats proved no different, with the game coming down to the final minute.
The Bulldogs took possession of the ball with 5:19 left in the game, following a game-tying score by Weslaco East quarterback Javi Garza.
Calm and collected, senior quarterback Hunter Curl led the offense 90 yards down the field, completing all six of his passes for 54 yards, while adding 23 yards on the ground, setting up the Bulldogs on the one-yard line with less than 30 seconds left.
Senior running back Weston Guzman punched it in from one yard for the game-winning score, lifting the Bulldogs over the Wildcats 21-14 in The Monitor’s Game of the Week on Thursday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
“We work it all the time,” McAllen High head coach Patrick Shelby said. “We told our guys to be calm, cool and collected. We told them to lock in and focus, and the boys did that. Just being smart with how we marched the ball down the field put our guys in a situation to be successful.”
Curl finished the night with 211 total yards of offense, including a team-leading 102 rushing yards and one touchdown, while Guzman added 65 yards and the game-winning score.
The Bulldogs’ defense stifled the Wildcats’ offense, limiting them to 186 total yards, while forcing back-to-back turnovers during the second half, including a 30-yard pick-six by defensive back Kolten Ottmers, which gave McHi a 14-7 advantage.
Trailing the Bulldogs by one score, Weslaco East defensive tackle Rigo Puente came up with a game-changing play for the Wildcats, blocking a McHi punt with 7:51 left in regulation, setting the offense up deep inside enemy territory.
The Wildcats took advantage of Puente’s big play, tying the game on a five-yard touchdown run by quarterback Javi Garza with 5:28 left. Puente finished the night with two sacks in addition to one blocked punt.
Still, the score proved to come to early, with the Curl surgically moving the offense 90 yards down the field, while chewing up nearly five minutes of time en route to the game-winning score.
With that, the Bulldogs improve to 4-1 in games decided by one score or less, while moving one step closer to locking up a playoff berth and keeping their district title hopes alive.
“It’s a big win for us,” Shelby said. “We’re in a very tough district so you have to be ready to go every single week. We tell our guys not to look ahead at the schedule. We take it one week at a time, one game at a time. We’ll see how it all stands at the end, but it’s a big win for us tonight.”
Next for the Bulldogs (5-1, 4-1) is a home contest against the Brownsville Pace Vikings (2-3, 2-2) next Friday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium. Meanwhile, the Wildcats (3-2, 3-2) look to bounce back, hosting the La Joya Palmview Lobos (3-3, 2-3) next Friday at Bobby Lackey Stadium in Weslaco.