Despite boasting a very young squad this season, the Harlingen South Hawks came out in week one and beat Weslaco on the road, showing that they are likely to contend in District 32-6A this season.
Still, Lanny Wilson’s Hawks have some learning to do and the schedule has allowed them to do just that.
They faced a tough McAllen Memorial squad during scrimmage play, a ground and pound slot-t offense when they faced Weslaco and now they face a balanced spread offensive look when they host Edinburg Vela tonight in their home opener at 7:30 p.m.
“A lot of football is match ups. When you play against some of these teams with two tight ends and are running the ball, you can kind of cover for each other,” Wilson said. “Now we’re going to see if we can see if we can play with some of these spread teams also.”
Vela is coming off a big 56-21 victory over Brownsville Pace and got a pretty balanced effort from their offense.
However, it was the SaberCat passing game led by quarterback Ebher Lopez that shined.
Lopez threw for 241 yards and five touchdowns, making Vela a good test for the South secondary this week.
The SaberCats, however, also rushed for more than 240 yards on the night, so Wilson is on notice.
“They are coached well. They have a lot of players returning. They spread you out and do all kinds of things,” Wilson said. “That staff works hard and they take advantage of weaknesses. We’ll have to be ready and really play well to win this week.”
Despite winning big in the first week, Vela head coach Michael Salinas also knows his team can improve.
The SaberCats put the ball on the ground twice and after seeing South put Weslaco in a 21-0 hole by the third quarter, Salinas knows his squad can’t give the Hawks those types of chances and tighten up on defense.
“We’re going to have to play cleaner, less penalties and play better with special teams,” Salinas told The Monitor this week. “They’re a very well-coached team. It’s going to take a great effort in every phase of the game. South’s a very disciplined football team. So we’ve got to eliminate the big plays.”
The Hawks expect Vela to bring the pressure tonight with extra rushers.
South running back Steven Rodriguez, who scored twice in their win against Weslaco, knows that he and the rest of the Hawk backfield duties will include picking up some of those blitz looks to protect quarterback Jimmy Morton.
“They are going to bring the blitz on a lot of plays, but we have some plays to try and counter that,” Rodriguez said. “There is extra pressure to block, but we have to do our job to protect our quarterback.”