Heartstopper: Harlingen Cards hone in, defeat Raiders in classic clash

PHARR — It was if all the eyes in the stadium were locked onto the gridiron for this one moment.

The flurry of media cameras lined along the end zone, the cold front’s fresh winds flowing through PSJA Stadium, fans from both sides frantically cheering on their mijos — all were focused on this fourth down play.

Down by six points with 51 seconds left to go, the PSJA North Raiders were stopped at the goal line by the visiting Harlingen Cardinals’ defense in a game that had all the ingredients for a playoff atmosphere with high stakes on the line. 

After a turnover on downs, the Cards got into winning formation and took a knee to run the clock out to grab the 15-9 win Friday night against the hosting Raiders in a District 32-6A contest that had fans feeling anxious and exhausted.

The Cardinals improve to 2-0 in district play, while PSJA North falls to 1-1.

“It was just a great fight between two great teams,” Harlingen Head Coach Manny Gomez said after the game. “And just a great community showing, too. … I’m excited for our staff. I’m excited for our program, for our school, I’m excited for our coaches, our kids, all our managers because we put in the work, man.”

That they did as the Cardinals, in a way, pulled it off against circumstances that aren’t easy to overcome. One, they played without their starting quarterback Hassan Woolery who only saw two snaps before sitting down the rest of the game due to a previous injury against the PSJA Bears the week prior. Two, they’re playing away from home in a tough environment. 

When one steps into PSJA Stadium — you’re not only playing a tough team but you’re also facing an undoubtedly faithful crowd.

Right off the first few snaps in the first quarter, you can tell it was going to be a bruiser of a game on the defensive side. If you were an old-school head that loves hard-hitting action, this was the game for you.

The Cardinals forced a turnover off a fumble early on as Matthew Elizarraraz picked up a loose ball to give his team the possession. However, neither team was able to get on the board as it was a chess match for both offensive squads.

The scoreless seal was broken by Harlingen as defensive end Ethan Martinez scooped up the ball off of a fumble by North’s Ryan Diaz to make it 6-0 after a botched extra-point attempt.

North’s Drayden Espinoza broke the drought as he punched it in on a quarterback keeper from the 2-yard line to bring it to 7-6, Raiders leading.

The Cardinals, though, responded quickly as there was less than three minutes left in the half as backup quarterback Alexester “AJ” Serna marched his team down the field. On a 4th and 12, Serna launched it over the middle to Jesus Luna for a new set of down and to park themselves in the red zone.

At the 6-yard line, Nathaniel Gonzales got the pitch off the sweep for the touchdown score to make it 12-7.

This is where things got interesting.

The Cardinals’ Serna was picked off by Oscar Gutierrez during the two-point conversion. Gutierrez, with no whistles blown, ran it all the way back to make the score 12-9 heading into the break.

The Raiders coming into this game averaged about 400-plus yards, so it was foreign for a lot of fans to see them scoreless going into the second quarter and even more odd to see them with only 9 points at the break. The Cardinals’ defense, though, only allowed 14 points the past two games before coming into this one.

“They play hard,” Head Coach Gomez said of the defense. “You know, they’re coached well. They put in the work, believe me. It translates to the field, what you do and what you see, the amount of time they put in, you’d be surprised. The amount of time these kids have been watching film and it shows up.”

That Cardinal defense showed up in the third quarter and forced three turnovers to rattle the Raiders’ offense. Harlingen’s Haqueel Woolery and Ian De Leon picked off Espinoza in the secondary, and Jay Garza recovered a loose fumble. Harlingen forced five total turnovers in the game.

In the fourth, Harlingen was able to get on the board again as Josiah Perez knocked down a 26-yard field goal for the final score before the defensive stop late in the period.

Serna, the backup quarterback for Harlingen, gave major props to his defensive teammates for holding off the Raiders. He said that this dub showed a lot of character from his squad.

“We fight,” he said. “We’ve got show that we can do the impossible and we can go and win another district championship.
“We are brothers, and we’re tight, and we love each other. We fight to the very end, and we just play like we’ve played our whole lives. We’re brothers, don’t count us out. I love how we love each other, we’re playing for each other at all times.”

PSJA North will look to bounce back on the road as they will face San Benito on Oct. 23. The Cardinals will face Brownsville Veterans over in Harlingen that same day.