By ANDREW CRUM,Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial looked ready for Week 1 during its scrimmage last week.
The Chargers hope to take that momentum into their first test of the season when they face Donna High in a non-district game Thursday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
The Redskins finished second to Mercedes in District 32-5A last year. But with 13 starters returning, Donna High could challenge the Tigers for that top spot this season.
“Donna (High) is a very well-coached team,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “Coach (Ramiro) Leal and his staff do a great job. They play very fundamental football, offensively and defensively.”
Brownsville Veterans fell short of the postseason due to district tiebreakers and would like nothing better than to start the season on a high note. But the Chargers must figure out a slow down the Redskins’ potent offense.
Donna High has several weapons, including running back Paul Guerra, quarterback Edward Dougherty and Amonte Bowen, who can do many things with the football on offense.
“Offensively, they want to slow the game down. They want to pound you, they want to grind it out,” Cantu said. “They’re very pleased getting 3, 4, 5 yards a pop, and continuing to move the chains. At the same time they have two of the more dangerous athletes in the Rio Grande Valley in Bowen and Dougherty.
“Both of those guys are extremely dangerous athletes that can take it to the house on any play.”
The Chargers counter with their own collection of talented players. Marcus Castillo and Gustavo Vasquez can work at quarterback or at receiver, Jeremiah Meyers will be a main target as a receiver, and Omar Rodriguez and Carlos Garza will lead the rushing attack for Brownsville Veterans. The goal on offense is to achieve more balance, run more plays per game and hopefully give them more opportunities to score this season.
“We’ll just take it one play at a time,” Cantu said. “We have a game plan we feel confident about offensively and defensively. We just need to stay within ourselves and execute it, and we’ll be fine.”
While Cantu is confident as the team gets ready for Donna High, he wasn’t going to guarantee a victory against the Redskins.
“That doesn’t mean we’ll come out with more points at the end of the night,” he said. “We do feel if we can execute our game plan, we’ve got a great chance.”
Even with one less day to prepare for Donna High to open the season, Cantu wasn’t concerned.
“I’m absolutely fine with short weeks like this because I’m very confident in our coaching staff. They do a great job of organizing, planning the practices,” he said. “We’ll be ready to go (Thursday night), but so will Donna (High). I think it’s going to be a great matchup.”
Donna High coach Leal was unable to be reached for comment.
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.