MISSION — Sharyland High’s offense executed to near-perfection Thursday, scoring on seven of its eight offensive possessions en route to a dominating 50-11 victory over PSJA Southwest during a non-district contest at Richard Thompson Stadium in Mission.
The Rattlers finished with 441 total yards and seven touchdowns, while also going 6-of-9 on third downs and 2-of-2 on fourth downs.
“I think we dished the ball around,” Sharyland High head coach Craig Krell said. “The first five touchdowns we had were each by different guys. … I think just spreading the ball around helped. We got quite a few guys that can help us out. We don’t need to focus on one guy and I think that makes us harder to defend. Then you got Calvin (Harris) who can run the ball too.”
Leading Sharyland High’s offensive onslaught Thursday was junior quarterback Calvin Harris. The Rattlers gunslinger shared the wealth during the game, connecting with five different receivers for touchdowns during the win.
Harris opened the game with a 39-yard bomb to senior tight end Santiago Longoria for a touchdown during the Rattlers’ opening drive before capping his day with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Mauricio Garza during the fourth.
The junior quarterback added touchdown passes to Francisco Gomez (39 yards), Bruno Cavazos (36 yards) and Mario Mendoza (18 yards) in between. Harris finished the game 21-of-28 for 300 yards and five touchdowns, adding nine carries for 51 yards. Longoria led all receivers with 10 catches for 119 yards and one touchdown.
“First of all, it starts with my line,” Harris said. “None of my passes happen if the line doesn’t block good. Then the receivers. I got to get the ball to them in the right spot at the right time. So, it’s not only me. It’s about my linemen and receivers too.”
Sharyland High’s defense shut down the Javelinas for a majority of the contest, keeping them out of the end zone for three quarters before a 15-yard touchdown pass from Joshua Jorge to Carlos Luna during the fourth.
That’d be the only time the Javelinas would find the end zone, with the offense mustering just 246 total yards and seven first downs on the night.
“You know I thought we cleaned up some things from last week,” Krell said. “Last week we had a ton of penalties. We had a ton of touchdowns called back because of penalties. I thought we needed to clean that up first and foremost. Defensively, we needed to tackle a lot better. We still missed some tackles, but we got a little better today and that was the whole point.”
The loss drops the Javelinas 1-3 on the year with just one more non-district contest remaining on their schedule. They’ll close out non-district play against Edinburg North at 6 p.m. Saturday at Richard Flores Stadium in Edinburg.
Meanwhile, the Rattlers improve to 2-2 on the year with two games remaining on their non-district schedule.
They’ll look to continue rolling on the road next week against Mercedes (2-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at Tiger Stadium in Mercedes.
“I just want to see us get better every week going into the last two non-district games,” Krell said. “I want to see us get ready for district play. We have a tough district. We have four opponents who were all district champs last year. We had a three-way tie on our side and Alice was district champs over there. So, our big thing is we have to stay healthy and get better every weekend. We got a bit better today, so we just have to keep doing that every week.”