Cards slay Dragons
KINGSVILLE — Big Red marches on one more week.
Harlingen’s Cesar Martinez intercepted San Antonio Southwest quarterback Felix Castillo twice and defensive end Mingo Rincon returned a fumble 25 yards as the Cardinals defeated the Dragons 21-14 on Friday night at Javelina Stadium on a
wet and muddy field behind a mighty defensive effort.
Harlingen’s offense needed all of two minutes to take a back-breaking 14-0 lead with 10:19 left in the first quarter.
Harlingen’s Pablo Garza scored from 72 yards and Mack Sanchez scored from 27 yards in the first two minutes of the game to give Harlingen enough juice to run away with the Class 5A, Division II win against Southwest.
Harlingen struck first when Pablo Garza dashed for 72 yards on the mud and muck of Javelina Stadium to give the Cards a 7-0 lead after Grant Gorman’s PAT with 10:51 to go in the first quarter,The Cardinals then recovered a high kickoff deep in Dragons territory.
Three plays later, Harlingen QB Mack Sanchez broke free for a 27 yard TD run to give Harlingen a quick 14-0 lead with 10:19 left in the first quarter.
Southwest’s defense tightened up soon after that as Harlingen didn’t muster much on offense.
But so did Harlingen’s Cardinal Crush defense.
The Drags’ first possession of the game ended in a punt. The next one ended in a fumble and the next two with Harlingen getting the ball over on downs.
Cards CB Martinez picked off Castillo to end the Dragons’ final drive of the first half.
The Cards ran out the clock from that point to take a 14-0 lead into halftime.
