BROWNSVILLE — A Brownsville Hanna field goal attempt hit the upright as time expired to give the McAllen Memorial Mustangs a 31-28 non-district win over the Golden Eagles on Friday night in a non-district meeting.
At halftime, the Eagles trailed the Mustangs 31-7, but raced back into the game in the second half, cutting the lead to 31-28.
“McAllen Memorial is always a very good program,” Hanna coach Mark Guess said. “If we can trade punches with those guys, we know we are going to be OK. We know we can compete with anybody.”
Hanna running back Kriz Pena ran for two touchdowns, one during the first quarter and the other in the third. Pena ran hard on the night, breaking tackles and even hurdling a defender in the fourth quarter.
On the final play of the third quarter, Joshua Villafranco found receiver Joseph Ruiz for a 38-yard touchdown. Villafranco dropped a dime for his second touchdown pass, a 35-yard toss that hit his receiver in stride, cutting the lead to 31-28.
The Mustangs put in the work during the first half behind their huge offensive line. A couple of good drives chewed up some clock in the second half as well. The long possessions proved pivotal at the end of the game as the Eagles needed every second they could have.
“Really happy with how we came out,” Mustangs coach Moses Patterson said. “The intensity and energy of the first half. The second half, we knew we were going to have some growing pains, a lot of new faces in the mix.
“Brownsville Hanna is a tremendous team, Coach Guess does a great job over there. We will take the win, any win we can get, but we know we have to go home and improve on some things.”
The Mustangs found the scoreboard first with running back Sebastian Aleman. The junior broke a couple of tackles and found the sideline from 38 yards out. The long run capped off an impressive drive that chewed up half of the first quarter.
Senior running back Max Alaniz-Choy punched it in from 17 yards after the Mustangs were set up by a big reception from Dylan Goodson.
Goodson took a 59-yard sweep to the house and followed it up with a touchdown reception from JP Cortez.
The Mustangs take on the Mission Veterans Memorial Patriots at 7:30 p.m. Friday at home . The Eagles will play at Sharyland High, also at 7:30 p.m.
