Confident Cardinals set for solid Laredo United

ALICE - the Laredo United Longhorns can easily be described in one word.

Good. Explosive. Juggernaut.

All fairly assess what the Longhorns have done this season.

But for Harlingen head coach Manny Gomez, the Longhorns are "confident."

And in the arena of high school football, being confident can be more dangerous than anything else.

Gomez and the Cardinals travel to Alice today to take on United in a Class 5A, Division I area clash at Coyote Stadium.

"You could see it (confidence) in their play," Gomez said. "They've won some big games and they definitely believe. They believe in their system and they believe they can win."

United's (7-4) only losses came to SA Southwest, SA Stevens, SA Alamo Heights and CC Ray.

But it's the play of super sophomore quarterback Tony Salas that's stealing headlines in that border town.

Salas - who's been described to having ice water in his veins by his coach - has passed for 3,028 yards this season and 32 touchdowns.

Salas had six TD passes and over 300 yards passing last week against Donna.

The Longhorns are averaging 372.1 yards and 31.3 points per game.

Ball catchers George Ramos (44 catches, 671 yards and 5 TDs), Rick Velasquez (43-751-12) and AJ Gomez (41-510-5) lead the team in receiving.

It's definitely an air show and head coach David Sanchez hopes to continue their postseason run after Saturday.

"We just have to do what we've been doing all year," Sanchez said. "I look at this as a group of overachievers. They've come a long way. A lot of people didn't expect s to be here especially after the way we started the season (with a 0-3 record). But we've matured."

Sound familiar?

Harlingen (9-2) too seems to have matured during the season. When Gomez brought over Spencer Gantt to take over the offense, Gantt installed a one-back, spread offense.

It took a few weeks but the Cards look like they've finally started to click.

The Cards are fresh off a huge win against Weslaco in a bi-district clash.

In the game, running back Pablo Garza enjoyed a career game with 222 rushing yards and 5 TDs on 21 carries.

Quarterback John Murphy passed for 235 yards and two TDs and ran for two more.

But it was his amazing completion percentage of 82.4 (14-of-17 passing) that stole the show.

And speaking of stealing the show, Harlingen's defense wasn't too shabby either holding another explosive offense to 243 total yards.

Weslaco was averaging nearly 500 per game coming in.

Harlingen is giving up 2-5 yards per game, including their postseason affair.

But the Longhorns are a new beast. One that Harlingen hasn't really faced this season.

And Gomez said his offense, defense and special teams were ready for the challenge.

"I burst their bubble on Monday," Gomez said of their 63-14 bi-district win against the Panthers. "I told them we're 0-0 on Monday.
We have to play hard for four quarters and as Cardinals, we don't know any better. It's a do-or-die situation. There's no tomorrow if we don't take care of today."

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