By MARK MOLINA, Staff Writer
Both the Hanna Golden Eagles and the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers had their share of big play moments in their first action away from the practice field Friday night at Sam’s Stadium.
For the coaches, however, getting some material from the eye in the sky might be the biggest takeaway from the first real action of the season.
“You really can’t really say a whole lot about how things went until you go back and watch the video and see,” Chargers head coach David Cantu said. “It seemed like the effort was fantastic and the execution a little off, but that’s to be expected early in the year.”
The Chargers’ offense looked sharp early in their first series of the controlled period as quarterback Gustavo Vasquez found receiver Carlos Galindo deep for a 55-pick up.
Vasquez had a pair of touchdown passes throughout the night, but also saw a good rush from the Hanna defense.
“One thing we needed to do was become a better passing team and we had some moments that showed we can be,” Cantu said.
The Golden Eagles picked up two interceptions and a fumble on the night and was able to get pressure at times on the BVM quarterbacks.
While the line looked sharp, Hanna head coach Mark Guess did see some miscommunication in his young secondary.
“My defensive front surprised me more than anything — they didn’t do a bad job,” Guess said. “We had a couple of breakdowns in the secondary that allowed them to have some big plays, but that’s some of our youth kind of showing through. We’ll learn from film and get better on that side of the ball.”
Offensively, Hanna had success running the ball against the Veterans defense.
Running back Cesar Mancias broke and evaded multiple tackles on his way to a 70-yard touchdown on Hanna’s first play in the controlled period and had 21 yards in the live period on five carries, one of which included an 11-yard run on a second-and-16 play.
“I think Cesar ran the ball pretty good,” Guess said. “I think we moved the ball well at times during the live quarter — we were driving pretty good.”
The scrimmage ended with four minutes to play in the live period after a Charger player was carted off the field with an undisclosed injury.