By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Brownsville Veterans Memorial and Hanna have some pretty dynamic quarterbacks under center.
The Chargers’ Marcus Castillo and the Golden Eagles’ Andy Lopez are senior quarterbacks who can get it done on offensively, and each will try to get the upper hand in this duel during the District 32-6A game.
Brownville Veterans (5-0, 2-0) plays host to Hanna (2-3, 0-2) in The Brownsville Herald’s Game of the Week for Week 7 at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Sams Memorial Stadium.
Castillo leads the Chargers’ offense, the best in the district at 461 yards per game. He can get it done with his arm or his feet as the senior signal caller has thrown for 669 yards and 10 touchdowns by completing 61 percent of his pass attempts and has run for a district-best 785 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“This week is no different in terms of the quality of the opponent,” Hanna coach Rene Medrano said. “Everybody in our district is tough, it just so happens we’re playing (Brownsville) Veterans this week. They’re on a roll, they do a good job over there and they have some good athletes on offense (like Marcus Castillo).”
Lopez is the top passer in the district with 1,170 yards and eight touchdowns, and he has completed better than 50 percent of his attempts. Although he doesn’t run as often, he’s still a threat when he needs to put his head down and take off.
“The defense needs to execute the game plan that Coach (Larry) Vincent and his staff has put together,” Brownsville Veterans coach David Cantu said. “It’s difficult to defend what they do because Andy Lopez is as dangerous as they get. Honest to goodness, he’s one of the most accurate passers I’ve seen in a long time.”
Offensively, the Chargers have been impressive running or throwing the ball this season.
“We are counting on the boys up front — led by (center) Jorge Montelongo there are three seniors in the middle — to continue to run the ball but have a balanced attack,” Cantu said. “I think we’ve done a better job of that this year. We don’t have to be so reliant on guys making big plays in the run game. We can have confidence calling a pass play, and we’re going to take care of the ball and make something happen.
“Our receiving corps is very solid. We can have multiple guys in there, and we’re not afraid to throw to any of them.”
Defensively, the teams are almost identical. The Chargers and Eagles both allow less than 300 yards per game and can consistently keep pressure on the quarterback and wide receivers.
The ability to take advantage of that pressure has been about the only difference between the teams. Brownsville Veterans has capitalized on its opponents’ mistakes, but Hanna has only occasionally this season.
“When our defense gives us opportunities, we have to take advantage of that,” Medrano said of his team forcing two turnovers against Harlingen High last week but failing to turn them into points.
With the teams being similar in what they can do on both sides of the ball, it could come down to the slightest error that changes the outcome.
“Anytime there is two teams that are somewhat equally matched, it’s going to come down to that,” Medrano said. “It’s going to come down to that mental mistake, that turnover, that letdown somewhere during the game that can make all the difference.”
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.