HARLINGEN — For the Harlingen Cardinals, their season ended with their eight consecutive district title, their eight straight Bird Bowl win and their eight straight quarter without allowing an opponent to score.
Leo Tienda ran for 183 yards and two touchdowns, and the defense pitched its second straight shutout to lift the Cardinals over the Harlingen South Hawks 20-0 Friday night at Boggus Stadium in Bird Bowl XXIII.
The South offense began the game firing with a 15-play drive that lasted nearly eight and a half minutes. However, the Hawks failed to convert on a fourth-and-13 play from the Harlingen 33 and walked away with nothing to show.
“The gauntlet (of the district) has made us stronger,” Harlingen head coach Manny Gomez said. “South came out swinging and did some good things and it took us a while to get going. Once we did, we adapted and overcame; I’m proud of the effort.
“The special teams did good tonight and especially our offense.”
Harlingen will share the District 32-6A title with San Benito and Los Fresnos.
The Cards (8-2, 6-1) will now open the postseason hosting Edinburg Economedes next week.
South (3-6, 3-4) was eliminated from playoff contention with the loss, but would have missed out anyway since Brownsville Veterans won its game against Lopez.
For South, the game was filled with missed opportunities and costly penalties, but head coach Lanny Wilson wasn’t going to take anything away from the Harlingen defense, which sacked quarterback Brandon Villarreal and forced two turnovers in the final three minutes to ice the win.
“We missed opportunities, but against Harlingen, you can’t,” Wilson said. “They’ve got depth and really good athletes. We won’t make excuses; they’re just good and we can’t miss any opportunities. We had one player miss an assignment on defense and their runner went 70 yards on us.
“Our guys didn’t quit, but we didn’t make the playoffs; that’s just not what our expectations are, but I’m still proud of my players.”
Everyone was getting in on the action for Harlingen on Friday night.
Tienda had a touchdown run of 67 yards early in the second quarter and an 18-yarder with under a minute to play in the game.
Place kicker Jose Martinez-Lugo booted field goals of 49 and 42 yards, while defensive tackle Travis Barnes got to South’s Villarreal for three sacks in the second half.
“We didn’t slow down on any phase, whether it is offense, defense or special teams,” Gomez said. “Why? We’ve been prepared for big games like this.
“Now we start our third season and hopefully make a great run.”