Big 7 football Week 2 previews

Week 1 of Valley high school football saw the Big 7 teams go 3-4. The winners included the Veterans Memorial Patriots, the Pioneer Diamondbacks and the Palmview Lobos. The losers were the Sharyland Rattlers, the Mission Eagles, the La Joya Coyotes and the Juarez-Lincoln Huskies.

Having started last night, with the Lobos traveling to PSJA Southwest and the Coyotes hosting Donna North, Week 2 is already off and running. But with three games on tonight’s schedule and two more tomorrow, there’s still plenty of Big 7 gridiron action to see as the second week of non-district play continues.

Mission Eagles at Brownsville Hanna

Coming off last week’s 23-2 loss to the Veterans Memorial Patriots in what has come to be known as the Battle of Conway, the Eagles will be looking to bounce back tonight as they travel to Brownsville to play the Hanna Golden Eagles at 7:30. Hanna, who opened their non-district schedule with a 21-14 win over Edinburg Economedes Saturday, will be out to make it two in a row over Mission who they defeated at Tom Landry Stadium last year, 23-14.

The Eagles, who could only muster 92 yards of total offense against the Patriots last week, will be out to find the keys to their offense tonight in hopes of test driving it up and down the field over the Hanna defense. Whether Mission can simply tune up their offense to get it running like a well-oiled machine and not have to completely overhaul it will play a big part in determining if they’ll be an entry in the District 30-6A playoff race or if they’ll spend most of their season trying to get the garage door opened.

Laredo United at Sharyland High

It’s taken a year, but the split of Sharyland High may have finally caught up with the Sharyland Rattlers. The Rattlers, who had not lost to a Valley team since October 2011 when they fell to the McAllen Memorial Mustangs 28-14, lost their non-district opener last Friday to the same Mustangs by a score of 42-18.

The Rattlers have their work cut out for them tonight if they’re going to even up their record. They’re hosting the Laredo United Longhorns who, despite losing to Schertz Clemens last week by a score of 55-43, put on quite an impressive offensive performance with 627 yards of total offense. The Longhorns’ two main offensive weapons are running back Alexis Villanueva (#32), who carried the ball 30 times for 232 yards and three touchdowns last week and quarterback Ignazio Tellez (#9) who completed 32 out of 57 passes for 358 yards and two touchdowns.

Rio Hondo at Juarez-Lincoln

The Juarez-Lincoln Huskies opened their 2015 non-district schedule last week with a 14-7 loss at the hands of the PSJA Memorial Wolverines. Tonight the Huskies will be hosting the Rio Hondo Bobcats who they fell to in Week 2 of last season by 41-13.

Coming off a 0-10 season, Juarez-Lincoln will be out to win its first game since their 15-13 defeat of the Edinburg Bobcats November 1, 2013. With five sophomores vying for starting positions on the Huskies’ defense and four on offense, whether the Huskies succeed in putting a game in the win column tonight or in achieving their longer-term goal of a playoff berth for the first time in school history, the future looks bright for the Juarez-Lincoln football program.

Veterans Memorial at Odessa Permian

For the second year in a row the Veterans Memorial Patriots will be traveling to Odessa to play the Permian Panthers in Week 2 of Texas high school football. With six state championships under their belts, the Panthers gained national attention as the team featured in the 2004 movie, “Friday Night Lights.”

In their initial meeting last season the Panthers defeated the Patriots 44-8 in a game that was actually much closer than the score indicated.

Both teams opened their non-district schedules with wins last week and while the Patriots’ 23-2 win over the Mission Eagles was impressive it wasn’t nearly as impressive as the Panthers’ 70-14 mauling of the McAllen High Bulldogs. In that game the Panthers amassed 489 yards on the ground and 167 yards through the air for 656 yards of total offense. Defensively Permian held McAllen High to a total of 204 yards with 120 of those yards coming through the air and 84 on the ground.

This game is scheduled to kick-off at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Odessa’s famed Ratliff Stadium which has been called the “Epicenter of Texas High School football.”