BROWNSVILLE — The Brownsville Hanna Golden Eagles figure to move up in the Rio Grande Valley rankings.
Hanna entered Thursday’s season opener at Sams Memorial Stadium ranked No. 5 in the RGVSports.com Top 10. The Eagles went up against the No. 3 MçAllen Memorial Mustangs.
The Eagles went out in front 14-0 by scoring on their first two possessions and never gave up the lead in defeating the Mustangs 49-28.
“I think we shocked a lot of people,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said.
“This win just shows our improvement over the last couple of years,” Guess added. “We’re trying to get Hanna football on the map for the first time in a while.
“We know we’ve got a group of hard-working players, and they’re doing everything we’re asking them to do. That’s all we can ask of them as coaches. They played hard tonight and came out with the ‘W’, and that’s what matters most.”
The Eagles led 14-6 after one quarter and 28-12 at halftime. They were up 42-20 after three periods.
Running back Cesar Mancias was a standout for Hanna as he rushed 29 times for 205 yards and three touchdowns. He had second-half scoring runs of 7, 1 and 51 yards.
Also for Hanna, quarterback Victor Campos threw TD passes of 31 and 24 yards to Miguel Payan and scrambled 8 yards for another score.
The Eagles had a tough time containing Mustangs running back Campbell Speights, who rushed 19 times for 145 yards and tallied TDs on runs of 46 and 12 yards. He also had a 93-yard return for a score on a kickoff that was called back on offsetting penalties.
The nullified score came near the end of the first half as the Mustangs were trailing 28-12. It could have allowed the Mustangs to pull within one score of the lead going into intermission.
“We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to work on to get better,” McAllen Memorial coach Bill Littleton said. “We showed signs of being pretty good at times, but we just weren’t very consistent tonight, so we have to clean things up and get better.
“We’ve got a lot of potential, and we knew that coming in (to the season),” Littleton added. “You have to take your hat off to Brownsville Hanna. They’ve got a great football team, and they played very well tonight.”
Also for McAllen Memorial, QB Sean Skaugen and running back Ethan Bazan scored on runs of 1 and 6 yards, respectively, during the second and fourth quarters.
After Hanna’s Campos scrambled 8 yards up the middle for the game’s initial score, teammate Aaron Frausto, a running back, broke loose for a 25-yard scoring run down the right sideline at the 6:27 mark of the first quarter to make it 14-0.
It was the cushion the Eagles needed to stay out in front the rest of the way.
Both teams play their second games of the season next Friday. Hanna is at Edinburg Vela, and McAllen Memorial is at home against Sharyland High.