By Kevin Lee Lara
Special to the NEWS
Maroon up and make some noise! The Falcons have earned a share of the District 32-6A championship for the second year in a row. After soaring past Brownsville Hanna 46-13 in its season finale on Friday, Los Fresnos finished the season with a strong (9-1, 6-1) record.
Coach Clint Finley has led his team to destroy district competition since moving to 6A. Under its two year history, the Falcons had an 11-3 combined record. This year, the high-flying offense averaged 35 points a game while only allowing 12. Hence, the almost perfect record.
The Falcons celebrated its annual Homecoming Friday night, and while fans were excited and cheering louder than ever, they were in for huge surprise…the comeback of preseason district MVP running back Isaac Moreno.
“It feels good to be back,” said Moreno after playing his first game this season after a knee injury in preseason. “They welcomed me back like I was never gone. I’m going to work my butt off to take them as far as we can as a team. I know we are going to go forward and I know God is watching.”
Notching his first reps in on the season, Moreno paid dividends and was able to score from three yards out late in the second quarter against Hanna, giving the team a commanding 27-6 lead.
Coach Finley approached this game with a different game plan than usual. Normally, the offense relies heavily on the legs of quarterback Rene Ortega, and though he did have quite a game on the ground including a rushing touchdown, Finley wanted to work on the passing game as playoffs approach.
Ortega went 30-for-37 for 435 yards and four touchdowns. Two of those went to his favorite target, wide receiver Pete Perez, who finished the night with 199 receiving yards on 10 catches.
The Falcons scored twice in the second half as they began to play more conservative. Still, Coach Finley got what he wanted. Ortega was able to add two more scores through the air off 29 and 24-yard passes, the latter to Perez to give him his 16th of the year.
As the regular season is a thing of the past, Los Fresnos is ready to make a splash in the playoffs.
“Our goal is to get further than we did last year and to get Coach Finley the best year he’s had and bond as a family,” Perez said. “It’s great, we work hard every week. We study and we’re on film all week long studying (the opponent’s) defense.
Asked about having Moreno back for the playoff run:
“It helps us out a lot. He’s a good running back, to not have him all year hurt us a little, but now that he’s back it will open us the passing game because he’s such a good runner.”
The Falcons will travel to Bobby Lackey Stadium to face the Weslaco Panthers with a Class 6A Division I Bi-District game on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m.
“We just go out and show it on Friday nights,” said Perez. “The way we are together, the way we are in practice, we’re not satisfied yet.”
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