After opening the District 32-6A slate with consecutive losses, the Los Fresnos Falcons righted the ship and have now rattled off back-to-back wins to improve to 2-2 in league play along with Brownsville Hanna and Weslaco High.
Meanwhile, after dropping two straight non-district games, the Harlingen Cardinals have been taking care of business and lead 32-6A at 4-0 along with San Benito.
With just three weeks remaining in the regular season, neither team can afford a slipup and that should make their meeting on Friday at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen one heck of a Game of the Week.
Last Friday, the Falcons (4-3 overall), who are ranked sixth in the Valley, got a late touchdown from running back John Salazar to hold off a very determined Brownsville Hanna squad 34-31 at home.
Quarterback Mark Mata threw for 246 yards and a TD while rushing for another 170 yards and two more scores in the win.
As for the Cardinals (5-2) – who moved up to No. 2 in the Valley Top 10 – they scored 14 points late in the fourth quarter to pull out a 24-10 road victory against Weslaco East.
Senior quarterback Jesse Castro was key for the Cards as he threw for 255 yards on 15 of 25 passing for two touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with two minutes left in the game.
Other District 32-6A games this weekend include Brownsville Hanna (3-2, 2-2) at San Benito (6-0, 4-0), Harlingen South (4-3, 1-3) at Weslaco (4-3, 2-2) and Weslaco East (4-3, 2-2) at Brownsville Rivera (1-6, 0-4) on Saturday.
Other big games involving area teams this week are: Mercedes (4-3, 4-0) at Brownsville Lopez (5-2, 3-1) in District 32-5A; La Feria (6-1, 2-0) at Hidalgo (1-6, 0-1) in District 32-4A Division I; Progreso (1-5, 0-2) at Port Isabel (6-1, 1-1) and Rio Hondo (5-2, 2-0) at Raymondville (3-4, 2-0) in District 32-4A Division II; Lyford (4-3, 1-1) at Santa Rosa (2-5, 0-2) in District 16-3A Division I; and Freer (5-3, 1-1) at La Villa (0-7, 0-1) and Santa Maria (2-5, 0-1) at Ben Bolt (5-3, 2-0) in District 16-2A Division I.
