Cardinal Crush defense rises to occasion vs. Dragons

KINGSVILLE — In foot-ball, it’s usually the offen-sive unit that shines. It’s the offensive skill players who make headlines and get all the attention. It’s usually the offense that makes the difference.

But against San Antonio Southwest on Friday, it was the defense that made the difference for the Harlingen Cardinals in their area-round win.

After running wild against Rio Grande City in the bi-district round last week, Southwest’s offense was virtually shut down by the Cardinals Big D.

In the first half, the Cards held the Dragons to a mere 71 yards of total offense.

And while a wet, muddy field did indeed play a factor, the Cards’ defense was responsible for forcing two turnovers and keeping the Dragons’ usually po-tent offense in check.

The Dragons were able to put a tiny chink in the Cards’ D in the second half – scoring two rushing touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters, re-spectively. In total, the Cards gave up 132 total yards in the second half. But they also forced a total of six turnovers in the game.

But the biggest defen-sive stand came with ex-actly one minute left in the game. Holding on to a seven-point lead, the Cards made one final defensive stand as on first-and-10 senior cornerback Cesar Martinez inter-cepted a deep pass from Dragons QB Felix Castillo to preserve the win for the Cards. It was his second INT of the game as he also had one at the end of the first half.

“That second inter-cpetion was the biggest interception of my life,” a muddied and smiling Castillo said. “We knew that with one minute left, they (Southwest) were gonna come out passing so I just held back and read the play right.

“I’m so happy right now. We proved that a Valley team CAN beat a San Antonio team. This is awesome!”

Cardinals defensive captain Mingo Rincon was also ecstatic, holding back tears of joy.

“We know that defense wins championships and we remembered that when we went out on the field with one minute left.

“We were very prepared for this game, too. We knew what they (South-west) had and we just did our best to stop their game. Cesar (Martinez) had an excellent game and really stepped up his game. He did great! Yes, we got a little rusty at the end their, but we held our ground and now we’re moving on.”