By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
It was only the first scrimmage of the season, but Hanna and Brownsville Veterans Memorial were ready to get down to business.
In the controlled portion of Friday night’s exhibition at Sams Memorial Stadium, the Golden Eagles and Chargers played to an even 3-3 mark. But Hanna came out on top during two quarters of live action, getting a 35-yard field goal on its second possession and claiming a 3-0 win over Brownsville Veterans.
In controlled action, Hanna scored all three times on runs, getting one each from quarterback Ernesto Benavides on a 2-yard sneak and sophomore running back Cesar Mancias broke away from the Chargers’ defense to score on a 60-yard run. Hanna added another short run for a touchdown during a red zone possession.
Hanna’s senior running back Jaime Gonzalez didn’t find the end zone, but he gained yard after yard and set up two of the scores with a few long runs and moving the chains for the Eagles’ offense. Combined with Mancias, both showed that Hanna will be tough to stop on the ground this season.
“We have a three-headed monster,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “Any one of them can carry the ball at any given time, they’re dangerous. If they get into the open field, it’s lights out and should be able to get it to paydirt.”
Brownsville Veterans got a short pass from Isaiah Solis to John Noble for one score, a long run by Gustavo Vasquez for close to 60 yards for the second touchdown and another short pass in the red zone late in the controlled session.
The Chargers moved the ball pretty well during the controlled portion, but had a some troubles with the Eagles’ defense who got to Solis and sacked him a few times to stall the Brownsville Veterans’ offense.
“We competed hard, definitely there are a lot of things to fix,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “I feel like our effort was good, so we’re on the right track.”
Guess was pleased with the way the offense moved the ball against the Chargers. Especially on the ground as Hanna was limited in its passing game, but used it to keep Brownsville Veterans guessing. Mancias and Gonzalez were certainly the difference and Guess hopes that will be a key for his offense.
“Those guys are good ball carriers,” he said. “We just have to make sure we take care of the ball and minimize our mistakes up front. If we can do that and control the clock that way and slow the game down, I think it will play into our favor and hopefully win a lot of ball games.”
Cantu said the Chargers would watch the film and fix their mistakes.
“I’m proud of our kids,” he said. “It’s a practice against another team and Hanna was a good test.
“We’re going to build from this.”
As for Hanna, Guess liked what he saw, but knows it still a process.
“We had some good things in spots, but we have some things to correct of course,” he said. “I think they did a good job. Hopefully we can stay healthy and keep getting better each day.”
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.