PHARR — We’re four games into Texas high school football season and there’s one thing for certain about the Weslaco East Wildcats — they know how to win a close one.
After winning their Week 1 and Week 2 games by one possession each and going to overtime in their season opener, the Wildcats won another thriller by defeating PSJA Memorial 23-22 in overtime on Thursday at PSJA Stadium in Pharr.
“We’ve been in this situation before so we know how to keep our cool,” East senior running back Margarito Pompa said. “This is our third game in this situation, so we’re probably more experienced than a lot of teams in situations like this.”
The win sends Weslaco East to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in District 15-5A DI, while PSJA Memorial drops to 1-2 overall and 0-1 in district.
“This was a big win for East and my hats off to those guys. They outplayed us most of the night, but we found a way to get the job done,” Weslaco East head coach Michael Burget said.
Weslaco East started overtime with the ball and used three runs from freshman back Malachi Rodriguez to move to the 13-yard line. Senior running back Margarito Pompa then handled a jet sweep around left end, bounced off a tackler at the 8-yard line and hit pay-dirt. His score was followed by an Alan Alejos extra point for a 23-16 East lead.
The Wolverines needed an answer in overtime and faced a 3rd-and-16 at the 31-yard line when quarterback Ryan Reyna tossed one towards the right-front pylon and receiver Robert Moralez came down with a contested catch in the end zone to make it a 23-22 game.
PSJA Memorial head coach William Littleton, who called an aggressive game from start to finish, went for the win with a two-point try.
Reyna took the snap, pitched it left to running back Emi Colunga who was looking for daylight around the left edge. East cornerback Ramiro Carrera shot up in run support and made a shoe-string tackle for loss at the 5-yard line to seal the victory 23-22 in the Wildcats’ favor.
“I read it like a book. We were going over it all week, so it was just instinct that kicked in — go make a play,” the sophomore corner Carrera said.
PSJA Memorial gave unbeaten Weslaco East everything it could handle all evening.
The Wolverines had a strong close to the first half with a rushing touchdown from Ryan Reyna before East answered with a short Elias Rodriguez touchdown run and two-point conversion on a pass from Aiden Gonzalez to Skyler Perez, which made it an 8-7 game with :45 seconds left in the second quarter.
The Wolverines stayed aggressive instead of running the clock out and picked up two chunk plays to set up a successful 49-yard field goal from Omar Garcia to pull ahead 10-8 at the break.
PSJA Memorial received the second half kickoff and put together a scoring drive that included a fake punt pass that went for 39 yards and ended with a 9-yard touchdown run from Colunga, but the extra point was no good, making the score 16-8 Wolverines.
The Wolverines went for the onside kick right after the score and recovered to give themselves a chance at more points, but a missed field goal ended those hopes and gave East a shot at the tie.
East’s Gonzalez responded by taking a quarterback keeper to the house for a 45-yard score and Rodriguez converted the two-point try on the ground to tie things at 16-16 midway through the fourth quarter before the game eventually went into overtime.
Rodriguez finished with 152 rushing yards on 22 carries, Pompa had 72 yards and the overtime score, while Gonzalez added 56 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown for Weslaco East.
“I kind of had a drought the first four quarters, so I was just being patient, getting my blocks. Once I finally saw that open hole, I just hit it,” Pompa said of his overtime touchdown. “My coaches told me to stop tippy-toeing, I kept moving, I broke at tackle and I scored.”
Reyna posted 91 passing yards, 57 rushing yards and two total touchdowns, while Colunga finished with 140 total yards and one touchdown for PSJA Memorial.
Next for PSJA Memorial is a matchup against Corpus Christi Flour Bluff (3-0, 1-0) at 7 p.m. Friday at Hornet Stadium in Corpus Christi.
Weslaco East enters its bye week in Week 5 and returns to action against Flour Bluff on Oct. 4 at Bobby Lackey Stadium in Weslaco.