HARLINGEN — It’s difficult to predict where a football will bounce anytime it hits the turf due to its odd shape.
Fortunately for the McAllen High Bulldogs, the answer was right into the hands of defensive lineman Salomon Arroyo, who rumbled for a 40-yard fourth quarter fumble return for a touchdown to seal a 24-15 victory over Harlingen South in their Region IV-5A Division I playoff matchup Thursday at Boggus Stadium.
“The only thing going through my mind was scooping and scoring for six points,” Arroyo said. “We came into this ready. Everybody knew their assignments, knew what to do, so we were ready to hit them hard.”
McHi (6-5, 4-3) moves on to the area round to face the winner of San Antonio Southside (9-1, 8-0) and Victoria East (4-6, 4-3), who are scheduled to play at 7 p.m. Friday.
“I think everything that we’ve been trying to do every single week, talking to our guys about getting better every single week, they came on with it tonight,” McAllen High head coach Patrick Shelby said. “To be able to be (in the playoffs) again, understand what it’s all about and come up on the good side of it, I’m very proud of them.”
McHi found itself in a 9-0 hole early after Harlingen South forced a safety and quarterback Dylan Anaya hit Jacob Cano for a 53-yard touchdown.
The Bulldogs answered with the next 17 points with a 24-yard field goal and Joaquin Valdez touchdown passes to Christian Echazarreta and Max Alvarez for a 17-9 halftime lead.
The Hawks fought back during the third quarter with a 22-yard touchdown run by Gilbert Lerma, but McHi’s defense proved to be too much to handle with constant quarterback pressure and plays in the backfield resulting in sacks and tackles for loss.
Arroyo’s fumble return for a touchdown stopped one South drive and Alvarez came up with an interception to completely shut the door during the fourth. Nathan Rocha and Heriberto Balderas had two takeaways during the first half with an interception and fumble recovery, respectively.
“Defense never gave up. We played our butts off this game,” Alvarez said after recording one touchdown catch and one interception. “If it wasn’t for them, we probably wouldn’t have won, but I’m just proud of those guys. We caused a lot of turnovers, got the offense the ball back and we scored with it.”
McHi’s receivers came up with key catches at pivotal moments to keep the ball moving.
“We wanted this bad and it showed out here,” Echazarreta said. “Our offense performed exactly as planned. We knew they were going to man us up, we knew we just had to make plays.”
Harlingen South’s season ends 7-4 overall as tri-district champions from District 16-5A DI.
“McAllen is a very well-coached football team. I got nothing but respect and well wishes for Coach Shelby and his staff, they do a tremendous job,” Harlingen South head coach Israel Gonzalez said. “We came out here and couldn’t get it done. That’s the way the ball rolls sometimes when you play football. They did a great job defensively applying pressure and being able to stop our run game. We got to put some points on the board and towards the end, just weren’t able to convert on some opportunities, but I thought our kids fought hard. They fought til the end. At the end of the day, we wish McAllen the best moving forward. We’re happy we got to represent our district and make the playoffs for the second year in a row and share a district championship again this year. A lot to work on for us as a program, but that’s what football is, man, it’s adversity and it’s facing it and continuing to push forward as a South program.”
