Bulldogs blank Jaguars: McHi silences Economedes in their tracks
EDINBURG — The Bulldogs out of McAllen High made a statement here at Richard R. Flores Stadium as they silenced the Economedes Jaguars, 41-0, in their season opener.
Economedes (0-1) last season drew a lot of eyes toward them as they surprised a lot of people with their strong season. So to say expectations are high for them this year would probably be an understatement. As for McHi (1-0), if you’re a surfer on the web, you can probably say they flew a bit under the radar on most folks’ top 10 lists.
The Bulldogs are one of the few teams this week who operates in Conference 5A but was able to take down a 6A squad.
“The kids did exactly what they were supposed to do,” McHi Head Coach Patrick Shelby said. “They came up and played extremely hard from start to finish.”
In the first quarter, McHi running back — Andres Garza — ran 18 yards on a sweep to draw first blood against the Economedes’ defense.
Garza wasn’t done in the first half, as in the second quarter, Garza took it 59 yards to the Jaguar 15-yard line after a fake scramble from quarterback Luke Laurel that led to a handoff which tricked the Economedes’ defense. On fourth and short, McHi switched out Laurel with Hayden Helgeson for a QB sneak to make it 14-0.
Economedes, to put it lightly, didn’t look like the squad from last year when it came to the running game. Plenty of times when John Carreon, another of the prospects in the RGV, had to scramble away from a flurry of McHi defenders. More so, anytime they ran a sweep, counter or a halfback draw, the defensive line was there to clog the gaps.
To further put it in perspective on how bad it went for Econ., Laurel scrambled out of the pocket with his 6 foot 3 inch frame and sidearmed a 31-yard pass to Luke Vega with less than 20 seconds left in the half. Cole Morley then jammed it in the left gap to make it 21-0 going into the break.
McHi didn’t let off the gas in the second half either.
Quick to the gut, Laurel swung-armed it to Ethan Shelby for a 51-yard touchdown pass on just the second play of the half to make it 28-0. Next drive resulted in the same result, as Laurel threw it 25 yards for his second touchdown of the game to Vega. It was 34-0 after a botched field goal in which Economedes’ Jonathan Ramirez almost took it the other way.
In the fourth, some morale was brought back to the Jaguars after Mark Chavira picked off Laurel to give his squad the ball at the 1-yard line. However, that was a double-edged sword, as one the next play a dropped pitch led to a McHi touchdown as Marco Palacios recovered it for the final score.
Chavira was a highlight on the defensive side of things for Econ. as he had one interception and a fumble recovery.
“The mindset was just to come out here and play extremely hard for four quarters of football. ... It was good to see the maturity from our football team,” Shelby said. “... We can’t be satisfied with what we did tonight, ‘cause we always know the sun’s gonna come up tomorrow, and we gotta go back to work.”
Laurel shared the same sentiment on the team’s win and the overall performance. He also added the team really came together during the off-season.
“We grew as a team altogether, put in the work this summer,” he said. “We grew. We matured.”
In regard to next week, Laurel said the team will work throughout it.
“We are true to our game,” he said. “We’re explosive, and we play with a lot of grit.”
McHi looks to extend their winning streak against another Edinburg team with the North Cougars (0-1) over in McAllen on Thursday.
As for Econ., they will look to bounce back against Palmview that same day.