Sanchez, top-ranked Cardinals blast Cougars by 44

EDINBURG — Mack Attack. Mack-nificent. Mack the Knife.

They all showed up at Cats Stadium on Thursday as Harlingen quarterback Mack Sanchez and the Harlingen Cardinals trounced the Edinburg North Cougars, 61-17, in both teams’ District 31-5A opener.

Sanchez passed for a career-high 275 yards and two touchdown passes on nine-of-16 passing.

Sanchez also scored another career-high four TDs on the ground and rushed for 76 yards on 12 carries. Sanchez finished with 351 total offensive yards on his own.

“We looked sluggish at the start…well we were sluggish at the start,” Sanchez said. “But we came together as a team. Our goal is to be undefeated and win district. So we had to do what we had to do. All good teams come together and we came together and made plays tonight.”

Harlingen receiver Anthony Reyna made plenty of plays. Reyna had a career night as well catching six passes for 210 yards and both of Sanchez’s TD passes.

Reyna’s TD passes came from 24 and 79 yards.

“Everyone did a great job tonight,” Sanchez said. “Anthony had a great game and it came at the right time…our first district game.”

It was an inauspicious start for the top-ranked Cardinals as the Cougars went 80 yards on their opening possession and scored to take a quick 7-0 lead with 6:23 left in the first.

The Coogs elected to go for it on a fourth-and-three instead of kicking a field goal on their opening drive. North QB Matthew Munoz found Ramirez wide open for the five-yard TD strike.

But Harlingen’s defense settled down as the Cougars finished the first half with 105 total yards.

The Cougars came out with an empty backfield and tried to pick apart the Harlingen defense. It worked for a while.

“We weren’t ready for that,” Harlingen head coach Manny Gomez said. “We didn’t prepare for that but we made adjustments and well the rest is history.”

Harlingen scored all 21 first half points in the second quarter.

The Cards got on the scoreboard when Sanchez ran it in from 20 yards out with 11:43 left in the half.

Sanchez added another TD run from eight yard with 4:33 left in the second quarter,

Edinburg cut the lead to 14-10 on a 31-yard field goal with 1:56 left in the first half.

It was enough time for the Cards as Sanchez hit Reyna on a 24-yard scoring strike in an impressive 69-yard drive to take the 21-10 lead at the half.

Sanchez scored his third TD on a seven-yard run in the third with 8:07 left in the quarter, he scored again moments later on a one-yard run with 6:47 left in the third.

Harlingen took a 42-10 lead when Erwin Oliva blocked a punt in the end zone and Mike Gonzalez recovered for the TD.

Sanchez hit Reyna on a 79-yard strike early in the fourth to give the Cards a 48-10 lead.

Harlingen added TDs on a 43-yard run by backup RB Sean Hernandez and on a 50-yard punt return by Gonzalez.

The Coogs’ Munoz passed for 193 yards and took a beating from the Harlingen defense all night.

“That last touchdown before halftime took the air out of us,” Edinburg North head coach Roy Garza said. “We needed to make plays against a team like Harlingen and we didn’t tonight.”

Eladio Jaimez covers District 31-5A for Valley Freedom Newspapers.