By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
LOS FRENOS — Much like last year, Los Fresnos’ defense stepped up against Weslaco East.
Falcons junior defensive back Johnny Cadengo had two interceptions, his second coming with 15 seconds left in the game to seal a 17-14 victory over the Wildcats in The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week on Friday at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium.
“It felt amazing … our defense came through in the last seconds,” Cadengo said. “Our offense was a little slow, but the defense made up for it in the end and that’s all that really matters.
“It was just a great team effort.”
Leading 17-14 late in the fourth quarter, Los Fresnos threw an interception at the Weslaco East 8-yard line with 2:30 left to play, giving the Wildcats one last chance. Weslaco East then drove inside Falcons territory with less than 30 seconds to play. A deep throw toward the end zone was snatched by Cadengo just past the goal line for a touchback and Los Fresnos breathed a sigh of relief.
“We’ve hung our hat on our defense all year long,” Los Fresnos coach Patrick Brown said. “When we threw that ball near the end of the game (an interception) we were trying to win the game. If we throw a pick it’s the equivalent of a punt … we do that so we’re going to let our defense win the game for us … I was so proud of our defense.”
The Falcons’ defense shut out the Wildcats in the first half and added a sack, and it rose to the occasion when it needed to after the break to help Los Fresnos (4-2, 2-1 in District 32-6A) win its second straight district game. Weslaco East (3-3, 1-2) got a strong showing from quarterback Richard Lefevre, who finished with 92 yards passing and a touchdown and added 95 yards on the ground, but the Wildcats missed three field goals on the night and that made the difference.
“Our kids have overcome a lot,” Weslaco East coach Mike Burget said. “They’ve lost eight starters and they played their butts off. It wasn’t a tough night … we played really good football … Texas football. I’m not going to blame (anyone) … our kids played really good.
“We got stopped. (Los Fresnos) did a great job.”
After a scoreless opening quarter, Los Fresnos broke through just 20 seconds into the second. The Falcons blocked a Weslaco East punt attempt and junior defensive end Mathew Ortiz returned it 20 yards for a touchdown to give Los Fresnos a 7-0 edge.
Neither team could get much going from there until Falcons senior quarterback Charles Chapa found Robert Ramirez on a 49-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown to extend the lead to 14-0 with 1:04 left in the half. That score would hold until halftime.
Weslaco East scored touchdowns in both the third and fourth quarters. Lefevre hit Ramsey Vasquez on a 7-yard touchdown pass in the third with 6:19 to go to cut the deficit in half.
“I thought they had a really great game plan for us and that quarterback (Lefevre) played his tail off,” Brown said. “He gave everything he had.”
Los Fresnos answered as kicker Adrian Torres connected on a 23-yard field goal to push the Falcons’ advantage to 17-7 with 3:34 to play in the third.
In the fourth, the Wildcats got a 1-yard scoring run by Derick Ybarra to pull the visitors to within 17-14 with 10:54 left to play. But unfortunately for Weslaco East, it couldn’t overcome its first half deficit and its rally fell just short late in the game.
Afterward, Burget was upset about some alleged errant whistles in the crowd and felt like that was hurtful to his team. But he refused to use that as an excuse.
“We lost to a good football club,” he said. “We’re going to bounce back and we’ll try to get the next one.”
Los Fresnos was happy to continue its momentum with another big game on the horizon next week. The Falcons are on the road against Hanna (5-1, 3-0).
“I thought this was a huge game for us,” Brown said. “When Weslaco East and Los Fresnos play it gets ugly a little bit and we get after each other and it always comes down to a point or three. Next week is a huge game, but we’re 2-1 (in district) and San Benito is out of the way. If we keep playing hard and we win out, it possibly could be a three-way tie for the district championship.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @andrewmcrum.