KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLIGNEN — The start of the second half between Harlingen South and PSJA North felt like deja vu for the Hawks.South held a lead, and a special teams miscue allowed PSJA North back into the game.
Last week the Hawks saw their lead slip away, but this week South exorcised its second-half demons, contained Raiders quarterback Iziaah Rangel and leaned on their kicker, Jose Lerma.
Lerma took over the game with his leg and solid special teams play. The four-year letterman in soccer booted a 24-yard go-ahead field goal with 1:58 left in the game that gave South a 24-23 lead and proved to be the game-winner.
“ I had nerves, the only other time I was nervous like that was during soccer,” Lerma said. “I’m glad I came through.”
That was not the only play Lerma had a hand in. During the second half he drilled a 60-yard punt and flipped the field position.
Trailing 17-14 late in the third quarter, South needed a spark, and Lerma provided it. Lerma recovered a muffed punt that gave the Hawks the momentum and eventually the lead.
“(Jose) has ice in his veins,” South coach Brian Ricci said. “I knew he was going to make that kick, I have full confidence in him. He had himself a game and made so many plays for us, he played his butt off tonight.”
The Hawks fine-tuned their offense and put together some impressive scoring drives. On their opening possession, junior quarterback David Torres hit Brady Bennett for a 20-yard pass and Derrick Delgado for a 22-yard strike that helped set up an Emilio Quiroz touchdown.
Junior running back Corban Hendrick followed up last week’s strong performance with another strong night on the ground. Hendrick who finished with 12 carries and 66 yards.
“I feel great right now, we realized what we did wrong last week, and we fixed those things and put it all together tonight,” Hendrick said. “That last drive for us was huge, we had so much adrenaline. We work on those things in practice, and we just kept pushing for four quarters.”
After hitting the go-ahead field goal, South’s defense rose to the occasion. PSJA North had 1:58 left and trailed by one. South’s defense came up with a stop on fourth down during the final minute to seal the win.
“Our kids played hard again and they limited the mistakes,” Ricci said. “We did make some mistakes tonight, we had some late hits that we can’t do, and you don’t win close games when you do those things, so we were fortunate tonight to get through those things. Last week, the same situations happened in the second half, but this time we were able to overcome it and I’m extremely proud of the kids.”