Bulldogs Overpower Wolverines 53–10 After Shaky Start
PHARR — A strange opening at PSJA Stadium briefly set the tone for chaos before McAllen High settled in and rolled to a 53–10 win over PSJA Memorial in Week 2 action Thursday night.
The Bulldogs actually opened with possession despite kicking off, after a Memorial returner misjudged the ball and let it die inbounds at the 9-yard line. McHi jumped on it but squandered the gift, turning the ball over on downs.
Memorial made them pay. Quarterback Nolan Ramirez led a crisp six-play, 79-yard drive capped with a touchdown lob to Vicente Lopez, giving the Wolverines a 7–0 lead.
“We started off slow,” head coach Patrick Shelby said. “We recovered the fumble on the kickoff but didn’t finish the drive. The boys shook it off, made some adjustments, and came out here and finished the game.”
Quarterback McCoy Wolthoff said the mindset after the win was already set by his coach. “Coach always says we get 24 hours to celebrate, then we move on to the next one,” Wolthoff said.
Special teams quickly flipped the game. A blocked punt was scooped and scored by Pablo De La Rosa to tie it 7–7. On the next kickoff, Memorial fumbled again, and Wolthoff needed just one play to hit Finn Henderson for the go-ahead touchdown. From there, the Bulldogs never looked back.
Running back Hunter Morley hammered the Wolverines defense, scoring on a long run in the first half and later stiff-arming his way through multiple tacklers for a 15-yard touchdown. Wolthoff added a sneak, Henderson hauled in another score, and Gregory Cedillo closed the night with a breakaway run in the fourth quarter.
“I think we came out a little flat,” Wolthoff said. “Coach Shelby got on us, and we cranked it up another notch. We just needed to stay out of our own way, because when we execute, we can be absolutely dominant.”
He added that McHi’s offense has depth across the board. “Morley’s incredible, Finn Henderson is a dog, and guys like Cinco Jones and Joaquin Alvarez can all make plays,” Wolthoff said. “But none of it happens without the O-line, so they deserve a huge shout out.”
Looking ahead, Wolthoff didn’t hesitate about the team’s ambition. “District champs — that’s the goal,” he said.
Shelby emphasized consistency as the next step. “The adjustments we made at halftime, especially with our blocking schemes, helped us out a lot,” he said. “The goal is to keep getting better every single week. We’ve got Edcouch-Elsa next, and we lost that one at the one-yard line last year, so we’ve got to be ready.”
McHi improves to 1–1 after dropping its opener to Los Fresnos, while PSJA Memorial falls to 0–2. The Bulldogs will host Edcouch-Elsa (1–0) next week, while the Wolverines travel to face Brownsville Veterans Memorial (1–0).
