FRIDAY NIGHT IN THE 956: Raymondville Stuns South, Woolery Goes Off and Week 1 Gets Wild

Thursday gave us the appetizer. Friday pulled up with the whole kitchen.

Raymondville survived overtime. Hassan Woolery went crazy. Rio Hondo hung 56.

McAllen Memorial answered with 55. Los Fresnos almost let a blowout slip. PSJA North ran for 425 yards like somebody forgot to tell them passing was allowed.

Week 1 came in loud.

Here’s what actually mattered.

RAYMONDVILLE GOT THE GAME OF THE NIGHT

Raymondville 46, Harlingen South 45 — OT

A 3A Division I team lined up with a bigger classification, traded shots all night and walked away with the dub.

Ninety-one combined points. One point separating them after overtime.

Jeffrey LeFevre is the name tied to the story. He came into the season as the experienced quarterback in a Raymondville offense working in a new backfield around him, and his first game as the veteran leader ended with the Bearkats surviving a shootout against a bigger classification.

DITV TAKE: Classification got tossed out the window. Raymondville wanted the smoke, stayed in it and left with the dub.

WOOLERY AND HARLINGEN CAME OUT SWINGING

Harlingen 42, Rowe 13

Harlingen rolled by 29, dropped 42 and gave Hassan Woolery and the Cardinals exactly the kind of opener you want before the Bird Bowl.

Hassan Woolery was the headline. According to RGVSports, he went 6-of-12 for 157 yards and two touchdowns through the air, then hit the ground for 162 rushing yards and two more scores on just eight carries.

That is 319 total yards and four touchdowns on opening night.

One more way to look at it: Woolery averaged 13.1 yards per pass attempt and 20.3 yards per rush. That is not moving the chains. That is putting a defense in stress every time he keeps it.

And now? Bird Bowl.

DITV TAKE: Harlingen put 42 on the board and won by 29, but Woolery is the part everybody should circle. Four touchdowns. 319 total yards. Yeah, Bird Bowl got real interesting, real fast.

LOS FRESNOS HIT THE GAS — THEN GOT NERVOUS

Los Fresnos 46, Laredo Alexander 39

Los Fresnos had this thing sitting at 46-19 after three quarters before Alexander dropped 20 in the fourth and made everybody in maroon look at the clock a little harder.

That was a 27-point lead entering the fourth, and the two teams still finished with 85 combined points. Los Fresnos also stretched its home winning streak to seven games dating back to last season.

For Los Fresnos, this was also Evan McChesney’s first real turn running the show after waiting behind Robert Pineda. First start. 46 points. Dub. That is a strong way to open — even if the fourth quarter gave him and the Falcons plenty of film-room material.

And Alexander deserves some respect for not folding. The Bulldogs dropped 20 in the fourth and turned a game that looked cooked into a one-score finish.

DITV TAKE: The ceiling looked high. The finish got shaky. Still a dub, still a lot to like — and now Los Fresnos has something real to clean up.

RIO HONDO SAID GOOD NIGHT EARLY

Rio Hondo 56, Brownsville Pace 0

Fifty-six on the road. Zero allowed. A 56-point margin — the biggest beatdown on Friday’s Valley board.

Rio Hondo brought back a veteran offensive core with Matthew Lopez at quarterback, Mario Lopez in the backfield and Emmanuel Perez outside, and Week 1 looked like a group that already knows each other’s timing. On defense, Ty Alaniz and Noe Leos are two of the returning names setting the tone for a unit that opened the year by putting up a zero.

DITV TAKE: If we’re talking pure dominance, Rio Hondo brought the receipt.

MCALLEN MEMORIAL BROUGHT THE OFFENSE

McAllen Memorial 55, Sharyland 43

Ninety-eight combined points later, Memorial walked out 1-0 after hanging 55.

The Mustangs leaned on the ground game, and Braxton Speights and Oscar Jasso ate all night. RGVSports reported seven rushing touchdowns between the two backs, while the Progress Times credited four of those scores to Speights and three to Jasso.

Memorial scored 55, and that backfield had fingerprints all over it.

DITV TAKE: Fifty-five in Week 1 gets our attention. Seven rushing touchdowns from two backs gets the highlighter. Now give us Memorial vs. Weslaco.

WESLACO LOCKED THE DOOR

Weslaco 30, Weslaco East 0

Rivalry game. Opening night. Zero on the other side.

Adrian Rodriguez made sure the offense did its part too, scoring three touchdowns in the Tinaco Bowl win, according to RGVSports. Three trips to the end zone in a rivalry shutout. That’ll play.

DITV TAKE: Everybody loves offense until your defense gives up nothing. Add three touchdowns from Rodriguez and Weslaco basically checked every Week 1 box.

PSJA NORTH RAN WILD

PSJA North 46, Laredo United 21

The Raiders ran for 425 yards on 59 carries in the road win, while United finished with 250 total yards of offense.

Do the math and PSJA North averaged 7.2 yards per carry across 59 rushing attempts. That is not one busted run juicing the average. That is four quarters of downhill football.

Antwon Estrada led the ground attack with 167 rushing yards, Mark Quintanilla added 113, and Drayden Espinoza chipped in 103. Three different Raiders over 100 yards on the ground tells you exactly what kind of night United had trying to slow that thing down.

And one of the more interesting storylines is Drayden Espinoza taking over at quarterback after making his name as an All-Valley corner. That defensive background and football IQ made him one of the more intriguing new quarterbacks in the Valley coming into the season, and his first start ended with the Raiders hanging 46 on the road.

DITV TAKE: Four hundred twenty-five rushing yards travels anywhere. Fifty-nine carries tells you PSJA North was not asking permission either.

DITV AFTER DARK

Not every game needs a documentary. Some scores just need the aux cord for 30 seconds.

Cigarroa 21, Hidalgo 0 — Thirty-two straight losses? Over. And Cigarroa ended it with a shutout.

CC Veterans Memorial 10, Vela 7 — Three points on the road. That one is going to sit with Vela for a minute.

Edinburg 17, Hanna 8 — No noise needed. Put the dub on the board.

Mission Veterans 29, Mission 14 — City bragging rights belong to the Patriots this week.

San Benito 20, Edcouch-Elsa 14 — Tight game. Greyhounds handled the last part better.

Freer 33, Santa Maria 21 — Freer found separation and took it by 12.

Brownsville Veterans 32, St. Joseph Academy 21 — Brownsville matchup goes to Veterans.

Lyford 47, Falfurrias 14 — Forty-seven on the road? Yeah, that got our attention.

Roma 35, Rio Grande City 7 — Starr County bragging rights went to Roma, and it was not close.

McAllen 41, Economedes 0 — Forty-one and a goose egg. Clean work.

La Joya 35, Zapata 12 — Coyotes open with 35 and leave 1-0.

PSJA Southwest 13, PSJA Memorial 6 — Rivalry game. One score. Southwest gets the last word.

La Villa 30, Santa Rosa 8 — Up 22-0 at half. La Villa had control early and never handed it back.

Donna 48, La Feria 13 — Donna was up 27-7 at half and kept the foot down.

Progreso vs. Marine Military Academy — CANCELED

THE DITV MORNING-AFTER POWER THREE

These are not just the three biggest scores. These are the three things Friday left us talking about Saturday morning.

1. The Valley has another quarterback problem to deal with in Hassan Woolery.

319 total yards. Four touchdowns. 20.3 yards per carry. Harlingen did not just win 42-13 — Woolery showed how fast one player can turn a defensive plan into Plan B.

2. Small-school football came with receipts.

Raymondville, a 3A Division I program, beat 5A Division I Harlingen South 46-45 in overtime. Rio Hondo went on the road and won 56-0. Friday night did not care much about classification labels.

3. If you cannot stop the run, Week 1 was a long night.

PSJA North piled up 425 rushing yards on 59 carries. McAllen Memorial got seven rushing touchdowns from Braxton Speights and Oscar Jasso. Different jerseys, same message: somebody better tackle.

WHAT DITV IS WATCHING NEXT: THREE WEEK 2 QUESTIONS

Can Harlingen South reset fast enough for the Bird Bowl?

South just walked out of 46-45 overtime chaos. Now Hassan Woolery shows up after accounting for 319 yards and four touchdowns. Forget the records for a second — can South get its defense right before Woolery gets comfortable?

Can Weslaco’s defense make Memorial play a different game?

Weslaco opened with a 30-0 shutout. Memorial answered with 55 points and seven rushing touchdowns from Speights and Jasso. That is strength-on-strength. Somebody’s Week 1 identity is getting tested.

Was Rio Hondo’s 56-0 opener a warning shot?

The Bobcats get Port Isabel next. After winning by 56 on the road, now we find out whether that was one wild Friday or the start of something. The Tarpons opened with a 36-21 win over Palmview, so this one already has some juice.

Week 1 gave us chaos, receipts and plenty to argue about.

Friday brought the whole kitchen. Week 2 better pull up hungry.