By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
The final week of Valley football‘s regular season finds the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers playing on the road and looking for a win to assure their spot in the state playoffs.
The Chargers (7-2 overall, 6-2 district) play at La Joya Palmview (5-4, 5-3) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a District 16-5A Division I matchup. The game will be played at La Joya ISD Stadium.
Even if they lose, the Chargers figure to still be in the mix for a playoff spot based on a tiebreaker system that could also involve Palmview, Pace (6-3, 6-2) and Donna High (6-3, 5-3). But it’s a much simpler scenario for the Chargers to just win and secure their postseason spot. Since Palmview is still in the playoff hunt, the run-first Lobos have plenty on the line, too.
“Palmview has had a great season, and we know we’ll be going up against a team that, like us, controls its own destiny,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “The atmosphere should be electric. While the stakes are high, it comes down to execution on the field. The quarterbacks for both teams (Liam Longoria for Brownsville Veterans and Freddy Flores for Palmview) have done a fantastic job.
“Our teams match up well,” Cantu added. “We’re similar in size and speed. We both rely on solid play.”
Brownsville Veterans is coming off last week’s momentum-building 21-14 victory against neighboring rival Pace, while Palmview lost 55-28 to district champion Mission Veterans (8-1, 8-0), ranked No. 3 in the Valley.
Mission Veterans downed the Chargers 45-24 in Mission back on Sept. 15.
This week’s action for Brownsville-area teams gets underway at 7 p.m. today when Lopez (2-7, 1-7) plays host to Mission Veterans at Sams Memorial Stadium in a 16-5A Division I matchup.
The action for other area teams continues at 7:30 p.m. Friday as Porter (1-8, 0-8) plays its season finale at PSJA Southwest (3-6, 3-5) in another 16-5A Division I contest.
There are three games on tap at 7:30 p.m. Friday involving District 32-6A ballclubs. It’s Harlingen South (4-5, 2-2) vs. Hanna (7-1, 4-0) at Sams, Rivera (0-9, 0-4) at Harlingen High (4-4, 2-2) and Los Fresnos (3-6, 1-3) at San Benito (5-4, 3-1).
Hanna, San Benito and the two Harlingen schools already are set as playoff qualifiers from 32-6A.
Hanna can win the outright 32-6A title if the Golden Eagles beat South. A Hanna loss and a San Benito win would mean the Eagles and Greyhounds share the district championship.
Hanna’s last district title came in 2009.
“We want to be selfish and we want to win it all for ourselves,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said of the 32-6A crown.
In another regular-season finale at 7 p.m. Friday, St. Joseph Academy (2-6, 1-1) plays host to San Antonio Holy Cross (5-3, 2-0) at Canales Field in a TAPPS Division II District 4 matchup. This game also has a district title on the line.
Yet another 16-5A Division I game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday when Pace plays host to Rio Grande City (3-6, 3-5) at Sams.
Even if things go to a tiebreaker on a points system to determine the two final playoff qualifiers in their district, the Vikings already have clinched a playoff spot. Still, they want to win on Saturday.
“Yes, we’re set (as a playoff qualifier),” Pace coach Danny Pardo said. “We’d either be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed (for the postseason) from our district. We want to win Saturday. We want to go into the playoffs coming off a win.”
Meanwhile, Port Isabel (4-5, 1-2) has completed its District 16-4A Division II regular-season schedule and has an open date this week. The Tarpons are preparing for next week’s bi-district playoffs.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess