By EDWARD SEVERN, Staff Writer
BROWNSVILLE — The Brownsville Hanna Golden Eagles will look to bounce back from a mid-week defeat to the Brownsville Rivera Raiders when they take on Weslaco High on Friday at home.
“We lost to a great and well-coached Rivera team,” Hanna coach Reyes Prado said. “We got nothing to be ashamed of. The kids learned a lesson after the loss, and hopefully we can prove it our last games leading up to the playoffs.”
Despite the bump in the road, the Eagles are still happy about the season and hope to finish off strong.
“The chemistry is building up, little by little,” Prado said. “We won seven games in a row before the loss to Rivera. Hopefully we can build another streak heading into the playoffs.”
Hanna relinquished first place in the defeat. Rivera jumped past Hanna in the table because of the Raiders’ superior goal differential. Both are level with 25 points.
“We have overcome many obstacles this season, and it is just another one that we have to dismiss and keep on going,” Hanna playmaker Sebastian Gonzalez said.
The Eagles’ leading goal scorer this season is Sergio Gomez Jr. The sophomore has 10 so far.
“We are playing good,” Gomez said. “We are looking good in district, but the loss was hard because we looked kind of bad. We have an opportunity to score some goals and help with the goal differential against Weslaco.”
One thing the Eagles have done well all season is put teams under pressure and take the ball off of their opponents.
“Obviously on Tuesday we struggled against Rivera, but that is what we do,” Prado said. “We take the ball away from them and attack teams as much as we can.”
Gonzalez and Gomez acknowledged that they needed to put more pressure on Rivera.
On paper, the Panthers are a good matchup to regain confidence. Weslaco High is rooted at the bottom of the table with no district points and has allowed more than 50 goals.
Prado and the Eagles are not overestimating the Panthers. Weslaco High could be playing with a point to prove and has a few players that could play on any team in Brownsville, Prado said.
“We approach them the same as any other team,” Gonzalez said. “We do not take any team lightly, nor do we overhype anybody. We play our game.”