Falcons pull off another late-game comeback win

DONNA — Since September, the Los Fresnos Falcons have found ways to win games.

And they were at it again at Bennie LaPrade Stadium on a cold, misty Saturday night.

Behind fantastic outings from Danny Mendez and Jorge Mata, Los Fresnos fought off the Donna Redskins 30-26 in their Class 5A, Division II area round game.

“Tonight, more than any other game, I was frustrated because I felt like we had chances to win the game (early on),” said Los Fresnos head coach Scott Ford. “But, I’ve got to give our kids credit. We got behind late on the road, and we were able to go down the field and score.”

The Falcons (10-2) move on to face San Antonio Reagan (10-2) in the regional quarterfinals next week. That game is tentatively set for Saturday at 2 p.m. at Victoria Memorial Stadium and it’s the second straight trip to the quarters for Ford and Los Fresnos.

Meanwhile, Donna’s superb season under first-year coach Manny Moreno ends at 9-3.

“Our kids fought like champions,” Moreno said. “These are the kids that brought back the pride to this community. And forever we’ll be grateful.”

Los Fresnos’ Mendez was absolutely amazing, earning a hard-earned 190 yards and two touchdowns thanks to the Falcons’ punishing offensive line and great effort on the junior’s part. Time and again, Mendez turned virtual no-gainers into positive yardage.

“The offensive line and Danny carried us tonight,” Ford said of Mendez. “I don’t have enough adjectives to describe Danny Mendez. I’m just glad he plays for us.”

But not to be outdone, Mata demonstrated why he’s one of the Valley’s most dangerous athletes, as shown by his 10 grabs for 149 yards and the go-ahead score.

From the get-go, the game was as good as advertised: Two district champions exchanging blows and showing why they were in the second round of the postseason.

Los Fresnos opened the game with a 14-play, 72-yard drive that ended with Jesus Ramirez’s 28-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead. The drive took almost seven minutes off the game clock.

But the Redskins answered.

After a bad snap went over the head of Los Fresnos punter Ramirez, Donna took over on the Falcon 14-yard-line.

On the next play, Albert Aleman (9 carries, 49 yards) darted in for a touchdown and the Redskins took a 7-3 advantage after Fernando Sanchez’s extra point.

However, five plays later, Mendez got rolling.

He took a handoff and burst for a 43-yard scoring romp in steadily increasing drizzle. Ramirez’s kick made it 10-7 Falcons at the 11:15 mark in the second.

Mendez then added a one-yard TD to push the lead to 10 with 8:56 left.

But the Redskins didn’t waver.

Donna mounted an impressive 16-play drive that chewed up over eight minutes as Derrick Ramirez hit Eric Peña for a four-yard scoring pass. The point after was blocked to make it 17-13, the score at halftime.

After exchanging touchdowns in the third stanza (a 14-yard run by Donna’s Jacob Medina and then an 18-yard Mark Carmona-to-Charlie Rivas pass for Los Fresnos) things got interesting in the fourth.

With the score at 23-19 in the Falcons’ favor, Donna punted, followed by a Falcon boot.

The Redskins took over on their own 40, and Josh Reyna tried his best to end it.

Reyna busted up the gut for a 60-yard touchdown and a 26-23 Donna lead.

“These kids learned to fight and they weren’t gonna be denied,” Moreno said. “They just ran out of time.”

With 3:36 left in the game and a timeout in their pocket, the Falcons did what they’ve done so many times before: come back and win.

It took only five plays, and Carmona (15-for-23, 204 yards and two scores) hit Mata who danced through some tacklers to the end zone and a 30-26 final advantage.

Donna tried to mount a comeback, but came up short and turned the ball over on downs.

“I thought Donna showed a lot of heart, but I also thought we let them in the game a little bit,” Ford said of the win. “We’ve been fortunate to play in a lot of big games in the past. Those gave us a sense of peace, and we weren’t overwhelmed by the situation (tonight).”