Xavier Cerezo put the Mavericks on the board first with a 90+ yard return on a blocked field goal attempt after the Mav 'D' held the Indians on three straight downs from inside the five yard line to force the attempt by Laredo Fernandez who kicked a 51 yard field goal just before halftime to make the score at the break 7-6.
The Mavericks came storming back after the break, first a good run up the middle by Fernando Zapata made it 14-6 before Ethan Johnston went 15 yards for the final Maverick tally with 2:27 remaining in the third quarter.
"Coach Villaseñor is doing a very good job with this team, they're very well coached, they showed some composure their kids worked hard and came up with a win," said Harlandale Head Coach Albert Torres.
Coach Torres informed The News Gram that his starting QB Chris Perez went down in the first half due to injury and backup Steven Benitez had to take the helm.
"Obviously, your starter gets most of the reps in practice, but I thought he [Benitez] did a good job coming in trying to do the best he could with the short reps throughout the week."
When asked who else had standout performances in this game, Torres said the following, "You know we had a collection of guys who played well tonight, our offensive line played good Tristan Fuentes is our leader there, Jacob Valdez had some big catches along with Franklin Castaño."
We caught up with Maverick Head Coach Eric Villaseñor who weighed in on the Maverick victory, "Huge win. Puts us in the driver's seat for a playoff ticket. But we still have our sights set on the district championship. It all depends what happens with Southside, I understand they're winning tonight, but they still have two tough games to play. We've got Floresville at home, it's going to be a huge game for us, so we've got to take it one game at a time. We control our own destiny."
On Zapata's run: "It doesn't happen without offensive line play. Our backs played really well. They were keying on Ethan Johnston tonight. We had to go to our alternate guys there on offense, they stepped up in the second half. They came up a little flat in the first half, but I thought we made some adjustments, a credit to our coaching staff and the kids finished it off with a great job."