By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
When the Rivera Raiders and Los Fresnos Falcons each won their area round game in dramatic fashion Friday night, the schools achieved something that has eluded Metro-area football teams in recent years: advancing to the regional round of the postseason.
Rivera defeated McAllen High 36-29 in overtime and advanced to its second regional game. The first was in 1999 when they lost a heartbreaker to Marshall 27-21.
The Raiders (7-5) will face San Antonio Brandeis at 7 p.m. Friday at Javelina Stadium in Kingsville.
Los Fresnos defeated Del Rio 13-12 to advance to its fourth regional game and first since 2008. Former Falcons coach Scott Ford led the team to three straight regional appearances from 2006 to 2008 but failed to advance beyond the third round.
The Falcons (9-3) will face San Antonio Reagan at 2 p.m. Saturday, also at Javelina Stadium in Kingsville
Despite entering unfamiliar postseason territory, neither coach will depart much from the normal schedule.
“We’re looking at film and trying to put a game plan together, but we’re not going to change too much,” Rivera coach Tom Chavez said. “We’re going to prepare as we have for every other team.”
Los Fresnos coach Clint Finley said his team wouldn’t alter its schedule except for the Saturday afternoon game time.
“We’re just going to stay on our routine and work on the same things we work on every week,” he said. “We can’t go about this game any different than any other game. We just have to go out and work, do our part and make sure we’re as prepared as we can be.”
Both coaches understand the challenge ahead of them and will try to get their teams focused on the task at hand early in the week.
“At this point, you’re going to be excited to play no matter what. I don’t think it will change much in terms of the performance,” Finley said. “Every week is going to be tougher and tougher,you see a better team every week. You just hope (the team) can play a little faster (than the week before).”
Chavez agreed that was key for the Raiders.
“We all know what we need to do,” he said. “We know what we’re doing offensively and defensively, and that’s not going to change. We need to get our boys in the right frame of mind and ready to play.”
The Raiders and Falcons’ squads are confident as they are set to play their 13th game of the season.
“We just have to get a mindset to get focused,” Chavez said. “If we do, I think we can challenge anybody.”
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.