Rattlers fall to Wildcats

The bad news is that the Sharyland Rattlers football team’s 2016 season opener did not go exactly as planned. The good news is that as one of the two non-district games Coach Ron Adame’s squad has this season, their 21-14 loss at the hands of the Weslaco East Wildcats at Richard Thompson Stadium Friday evening will not affect their playoff chances one bit.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Wildcats scored twice in the second quarter while continuing to hold the Rattlers scoreless to take a 14-0 lead at halftime. After the intermission Sharyland scored their first points of the season when senior fullback Fernie Perez ran the ball into the endzone from one yard out making the score 14-7 with 5:26 remaining in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, with the Wildcats leading 21-7, senior quarterback Alan Alvarez scored the Rattlers’ only other points of the game when he scrambled into the endzone from 10 yards out to make the score 21-14 with 4:42 left in the game. While the Rattlers’ offense would get their hands on the ball once more, it was not meant to be as the Wildcats defense picked off an Alaniz pass to bring the game to an end with the Rattlers on the losing end of a 21-14 score.

Immediately after the game, Adame commented on the play of his quarterback and the fact that he threw two interceptions in the first half when he said, “It might’ve been a little bit of nerves but he’s going to be all right. We’ve got some work to do, not just him but overall as a team, but that’s what these first games are for. They give us an opportunity to see where our weaknesses are but what it comes down to is that Weslaco East took it to us. They’ve got a good team and I expect them to contend for that 6A title over in their side of the Valley.”

“We’re going to build on the positives that we did show here tonight and work on the areas where we got beat,” added Adame.

Next up for the Rattlers is an away game at the Edinburg North Cougars next Friday at 7:30 p.m.