BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
Edcouch-Elsa’s meeting with Brownsville Veterans on Tuesday yielded the biggest upset of the night, and perhaps the season. The Yellow Jackets handed the Chargers (23-13, 9-1) their first loss of district play in a 39-30 home victory.
“A win like this gives our team that much more confidence,” Edcouch-Elsa coach Daniel Richardson said. “We’ve been playing pretty well of late. Now, they know they can beat any team in our district, no matter what other people may think of the games they’ve seen them play before.”
The Edcouch-Elsa (11-19, 5-5) game plan included a box-and-one defense to slow down Brownsville Vets’ top scorer, Hannah Meyers.
“We wanted to neutralize their best player,” Richardson said. “By neutralizing her (Meyers), it threw everything off for them. I had (sophomore) Haley Villalpando on Hannah the entire game, and she held her to two points.”
Brownsville Veterans’ loss on Tuesday was seismic for several reasons. Not only was it the Chargers’ first district defeat of the season, it was also their first ever district loss in District 32-5A. Brownsville Veterans has had a tight stranglehold on the district, winning its first 23 games in a row dating back to the 2016-17 season.
Nearly two calendar years elapsed between district losses for the Chargers. Brownsville Veterans last fell 57-50 to Harlingen High in a District 32-6A game on Feb. 2, 2016.
“We already knew that they hadn’t lost a game in our district, but even before that, they’ve been one of the top teams in the Valley,” Richardson said. “I knew the significance of that, but I also knew that our girls could come out on top if we stuck to our game plan.”
Edcouch-Elsa’s win forced a three-way tie for the fourth and final playoff spot with Brownsville Pace and Donna North, which also stand at 5-5 in district play.