Bulldogs battle past Warriors in season finale
McALLEN — Bragging rights and pride were on the line for the McAllen High Bulldogs and McAllen Rowe Warriors in their Week 11 rivalry contest.
For the Warriors, a win would send them to the postseason as District 16-5A DI’s No. 4 seed. For the Bulldogs, who were eliminated from playoff contention Thursday evening due to La Joya Palmview’s win over McAllen Memorial, an opportunity to play spoiler against their rival in the final week of the regular season.
The Bulldogs embraced that role and battled their way to a 21-14 rivalry win Friday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium to finish the regular season on a three-game winning streak while ending the Warriors’ postseason dreams.
McAllen High finishes its year 4-6 overall and 4-3 in district play, while McAllen Rowe dropped to 3-7 overall and 3-4 in district.
“Coming out that first half, we were down 14-7. I didn't think we played a bad first half, there were just some things we did wrong defensively,” McHi head coach Patrick Shelby said. “We just gotta play faster. Think fast and play fast and pick up our tempo. It was a little humid out here, I think that caught a lot of us off guard, but I think the boys did a great job in the second half."
The Warriors came out swinging to start as quarterback Adrian Botello punched in a 1-yard touchdown run to draw first blood and then connected with Landin Barrera on a 26-yard wide receiver screen for another first half touchdown.
The Bulldogs pulled within one score at the half after quarterback Joaquin Valdez took a designed run to his right, made two defenders miss and extended the ball over the goalline and inside the pylon to put McHi on the board trailing 14-7 at the break.
In the second half, the Bulldogs played like a team possessed defensively and used a balanced offensive attack to surge past the rival Warriors.
McHi receiver Joseph Rivas handled a jet sweep around left end and broke free for a 70-yard gain to set up a 3-yard rushing touchdown from linebacker Oliver Schwarz to pull even at 14-14.
It was then turn for the Bulldogs’ defense to make a play and athlete Abraham Barrientos delivered with an interception and run back to the Warriors’ 29-yard line.
A few plays later, Valdez found the end zone for the second time on a 6-yard scramble for the final 21-14 margin.
“Going into the half, we knew they weren’t stopping us,” Valdez said. “We were driving down the field and stopping ourselves with little mistakes, so we went into halftime and talked about it. If we do what we do, we’re going to beat them, so let’s come out like it’s 0-0 and just play our game.”
Rowe had one last chance at a comeback trailing 21-14 with 4:12 left in the fourth quarter, but a wide receiver screen to the left was tipped twice into the air and picked off by McHi defensive back Riley Ousley. The turnover allowed the Bulldogs’ offense back onto the field to milk the clock behind a big Valdez pass to Finn Henderson to seal the deal.
The Week 11 victory from the Bulldogs was their third in a row to close out the regular season, but McHi missed out on the playoffs due to a head-to-head tiebreaker with La Joya Palmview.
Shelby said the Bulldogs lose key pieces next season but will have a good, experienced group returning eager to get back into the playoffs.
“We started slow this year. Our preseason, we played tough opponents for a reason, to get us ready for a tough 16-5A DI district and we came on late,” Shelby said. “The bad thing is we’re going to lose some key guys, but the good thing is we got a lot of key guys coming back next year. The kids gotta understand however much time the good Lord gives us to recover and figure this thing out, we got to go to work in the offseason because this thing isn’t going to get any easier.”
