By EDWARD SEVERN, Special to RGVSports.com
RIO GRANDE CITY — The Harlingen High Cardinals defeated the Laredo United South Panthers back in August. On Friday night in Rio Grande City with an area-round victory on the line, the Panthers got revenge 24-7 to advance to the next round of the playoffs.
“Week 1 and they kinda take it to you like that in their park, and we were able to win like this, it is pretty rewarding,” Laredo United South coach Jose Coss said.
Harlingen High went ahead toward the end of the first quarter when quarterback Joe Lopez ran the ball in from a few yards out.
The Cardinals’ defense then got a stop to give them the ball after their touchdown. But a great punt by the Panthers pinned the Cards at the 1, and on the next play Lopez was intercepted by Armando Garza, giving the Panthers great field position.
The Panthers capitalized on the field position and then took the lead with a short touchdown reception by Garza to tie the game. Another Garza touchdown reception on their next drive gave the Panthers a 14-7 lead. Garza had huge catches on both drives to help set up his touchdowns.
The Panthers went into the half up 14-7 with momentum.
Garza was a stud all night playing both ways. Most of the night on deep comeback routes, he turned his defender to create space. When the coverage was tight, he went up and got the ball.
A huge one-handed snag by Garza while being held put the Panthers in the red zone deep into the third quarter. The Panthers got into the wildcat formation in the red zone at times, and it paid off when Javier Rodriguez punched it in from 1 yard out to extend the lead to 21-7 entering the fourth quarter.
The Cardinals’ offense looked stale during the second half. Penalties were a big factor, and the Laredo United South defense came to play. Orlando Lozano came up with a big interception when the Cardinals had a decent drive going, as he was not fooled on a trick play.
The Panthers chewed the clock on their next drive, basically killing the whole fourth quarter. They took it deep into Cardinals territory and put the game out of reach with a field goal. Only having a couple of minutes left and being down by three scores was too much for the Cardinals.
“This is part of the job that bites, really bites all the way down to the bone,” Harlingen High coach Manny Gomez said. “You develop these relationships with these kids, we adopt these kids, we love these kids. It did not go our way, but that is life. Credit to Laredo United South, they did their homework, they did what they needed to do and they definitely grew.
“It never really is the way you want to end. These seniors were priceless. There are some guys I will never forget. God bless all these kids,” Gomez said.
Laredo United South will face Austin Lake Travis in the regional quarterfinal round, but on Saturday night they celebrated and were extremely proud of their area-round victory.
“You cannot say enough about us winning nine games in a row,” Coss said. “People have no clue how hard it is to win football games, and to win nine in a row is special. We face a tough team, but we will be ready.”