By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
There’s plenty at stake when Brownsville Veterans Memorial and Los Fresnos square off this week in a District 32-6A game.
The Chargers and Falcons are trying to clinch a playoff berth, and a victory would certainly help each squad.
Brownville Veterans (6-2, 3-2) plays host to Los Fresnos (7-1, 4-1) in The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week for Week 10 at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
It doesn’t matter that the Chargers have lost two straight games or that the Falcons are coming off a win, these two teams seem to always get the other’s best game.
“I expect a dogfight as usual, that’s what I expect in this district,” Los Fresnos coach Clint Finley said. “They have great athletes, probably the most athleticism in the city of Brownsville. … They’re very dangerous; obviously they were undefeated until the last two weeks. They’re a good football team that will be fighting hard to get out of that mindset (they’ve been in the past two weeks). We’re going to have to go out there and play our best game.”
Brownsville Veterans is focused and ready.
“We’ve struggled (on offense) the last couple weeks,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “But we feel like we’ve fixed a lot of little things that we’ve seen on video. We’re confident. We understand Los Fresnos has a tremendous defense and is a tremendous team … but we’re going to give them everything they can handle.”
Each teams has a good offense. The Chargers are first in the district at 433 yards per game, and Los Fresnos is fourth at 398. Each team scores better than 30 points per game.
The coaches both mentioned limiting turnovers will be important in this game.
“We’re our own worst enemy,” Finley said. “We’ve had a pretty good year so far, but the mistakes we make on our own part are the things that hold us back a lot of times. Hopefully we can go out and play good, smart, consistent football. When we do that, we do pretty well.”
The Chargers know they have to prevent miscues on offense after having seven during the past two weeks against San Benito and Harlingen High.
“We need to take care of the football,” Cantu said. “We need to be able to put together drives, and eliminate any three-and-outs and convert on third down.”
The Falcons can relate to problems with turnovers. Los Fresnos had five against Harlingen High in its only loss this season.
“Good football teams like (Brownsville) Veterans will make you pay for silly mistakes,” Finley said. “They’re a good football team, and you can’t have any of that if you expect to beat them.”
The Chargers are hoping to bounce back after back-to-back losses.
“We’ve been talking the last couple weeks about getting a big signature win for this team and it hasn’t happened,” Cantu said. “What better opportunity than Los Fresnos. The bottom line is they’re going to get our best (today).
“I think we have one great one left in us, that’s for sure, and we’re hoping this is it.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.