McALLEN — Hate may be a strong word, but when it comes down to crosstown rivals McHi and McAllen Memorial, it fits.

The Bulldogs and Mustangs locked horns to open district competition Friday night, and for the first time since 2022, McHi finished on top, defeating Memorial 34-14 at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium in this year’s “Battle of the M.”

“Our coaches prepped us well,” sophomore running back Cole Morley said. “We really hate them, so there was a lot of hate going into it and we knew we had to win.”

The Bulldogs have been one of the Rio Grande Valley’s best teams through the first three weeks, and while many considered their Week 4 rivalry matchup against the Mustangs a toss up, McHi was having none of it.

After Memorial scored with 32 seconds remaining in the first quarter, which was the first points allowed by the McHi defense all season, the Bulldogs turned up the intensity and responded with 27 straight points.

McHi’s offense has scored in bunches this season, mostly through the air. But on Friday against Memorial, it was the legs of the sophomore back Morley that did the most damage for the Bulldogs.

Morley caught a 6-yard touchdown pass in the left flat just minutes into the game, and early in the second quarter, ripped off a 51-yard touchdown on a toss down the right sideline.

Junior quarterback Luke Laurel took what the defense gave him, and with Memorial focused on taking away the deep pass, McHi’s gunslinger still added two more touchdowns to his total, bringing him to 14 touchdown passes in four weeks.

Morley caught the first one, and senior receiver Joaquin Alvarez brought in the second on a 43-yard touchdown grab on a post just before the end of the second quarter.

“They were talking about it all week, how this game is going to set up our 10-0 run this year. We had to win,” Alvarez said. “All the coaches had a great game plan, we all executed it and came out with the W.”

McHi’s defense has been flat-out dominant this season, and despite Memorial breaking their scoreless streak Friday, the Bulldogs punished the Mustangs for four quarters.

McHi locked in on Memorial’s running game and forced them into passing situations. As they did, the Bulldogs front seven began pinning their ears back and bringing pressure.

Junior defensive end Marco Palacios caused problems all night for the Memorial offense, finishing with two quarterback sacks and five quarterback hurries.

“Next year, too,” Palacios said, calling his shot on next year’s game. “We’re going to beat ‘em again.”

Memorial's touchdowns came on short yardage scores by Oscar Jasso in the first and Braxton Speights in the fourth.

McHi has now scored 170 points and given up 14 through 16 quarters of football.

The cherry on top for Bulldogs’ seniors is taking down the rival Mustangs for the first time in their four years.

“It means everything to me,” senior linebacker Hayden Helgeson said. “That’s our goal for every season — we need to beat Memo — and we came out victorious today and it feels great.”

Next for McHi (4-0, 1-0) is another rivalry game against the McAllen Rowe Warriors (2-2, 1-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“Twenty-four hours. We have 24 hours to celebrate this, but next week, it’s the next opponent,” Alvarez said. “We got Nikki Rowe next week, so that’s our mentality — beat Nikki Rowe, then we got it from there.”

The Mustangs (1-3, 0-1), meanwhile, are out to end a three-game skid as they host the Rio Grande City Rattlers (1-3, 1-0) at 7 p.m. Thursday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.

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