NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
The Weslaco High Panthers have close losses to strong competition on their resume. They lost to District 32-6A undefeated Brownsville Hanna by three points, and 5-2 Mercedes beat Weslaco High by one.
When the Panthers took the field against an inferior Brownsville Rivera team on Friday, they never took their foot off the gas. They won by the biggest margin of any RGV football game in 2017, 72-0 at home.
First-year coach Michael Salinas was pleased with his team’s effort during the first district win of his tenure. The Panthers improved to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in district games.
“We were just really, really proud of our kids for continuing to be resilient,” Salinas said. “We battled through a little bit of adversity, had some tough losses. We had played good in spurts. We were finally able to put four quarters together.”
The offense was sparked by three early takeaways from the Panthers’ defense, and it was smooth sailing from then on.
Matt de Santiago had only 11 carries but kept his strong season rolling for 82 yards and two scores. The senior running back leads the team in rushing with 574 yards and 6 touchdowns.
The quarterback situation at Weslaco High has been a story all season, but even more so in recent weeks after Jacob Cavazos was lost for the year to injury two weeks ago against Hanna.
Against Rivera, Elijah Banda and Marco Leal combined for 157 yards through the air, and Banda added 2 TDs on the ground.