McHi pitches second straight shutout in blowout win over Edinburg North
McALLEN — Through two weeks of the Texas high school football regular season, the McHi Bulldogs are yet to surrender a single point defensively.
Offensively, the Bulldogs haven’t been too shabby, either.
McHi put together another dominant performance to start the 2026 season by pitching a second straight shutout, this time against Edinburg North, in a 60-0 victory Thursday at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The Bulldogs have now outscored their first two opponents by a combined score of 101-0.
“The kids are playing well right now,” McHi head coach Patrick Shelby said. “It’s not easy to not give up any touchdowns, especially two weeks in a row. Through the grace of God and keeping our guys healthy, our practice habits are good, their film habits are good and they’re excited, and that’s what’s keeping these guys going.”
In front of their home fans for the first time this season, McHi’s offense came out red-hot and the Bulldog defense played with their hair on fire for all four quarters.
Junior quarterback Luke Laurel had himself a day, completing 18-of-25 passes for 318 yards and six touchdowns, with all six scores coming in the first half.
Laurel’s accuracy and big arm was on display as he connected with junior receiver Ethan Shelby for a pair of touchdowns, senior receiver Joaquin Alvarez for another two, and one each to Luke Vega and Cole Morley.
Through two games, McHi’s gunslinger has completed 30-of-47 passes for 481 yards and eight touchdowns.
“He has done a great job developing within our system, within our program,” Coach Shelby said about Laurel. “Starting back to last year, but now this is his year and he’s stepping up and he’s playing. He’s making plays and showing some leadership skills and running the offense, so I was happy to see him do that. I was happy to see him be that vocal young man back there at quarterback and still be able to execute.”
Ethan Shelby consistently took the top off the North defense as Laurel was able to find him deep on multiple occasions.
“I feel like a lot of people doubted us, but we’ve shown with back-to-back shutouts that we do what we do,” Ethan Shelby said. “We all grew up together so the chemistry is there. We go hard in practice every day and the chemistry comes from that, working with each other. We know we can be very good, but it’s up to us to see how good we really want to be.”
Alvarez finished with a hat-trick by adding a rushing touchdown to his two touchdown receptions, while Morley also punched one in on the ground to finish with two scores.
On the other side of the ball, all 11 Bulldogs on the field were flying to the rock and disrupting plays at every level.
McHi’s front applied pressure, the linebackers stepped up to shut down the run, and the secondary prevented any big plays from happening, while also forcing a few turnovers.
Cornerback David Mercado picked off a pair of passes in the first half, while forced fumbles by Riley Ousely and Hayden Helgeson were pounced on by McHi defenders.
“When I saw him come back to my side, I saw him pull that pin, eyes opened up and cut the ball off and got the pick,” Mercado said about his second interception of the game. “Our defensive line, amazing. They’re putting the pressure and they’re helping us in the secondary and linebackers do our jobs. Linebackers, just fitting wherever they have to go, blowing up plays and blowing up runs. Our secondary, we struggled in a scrimmage, but we’ve been lights out since.”
The Cougars’ offense failed to get in rhythm simply because the Bulldogs didn’t allow it.
“Defensively, we might be young, but young pups can bite too, and right now, they’re chomping at the bit to get out there and play,” Coach Shelby said. “It was a full-team effort. They’re doing a great job getting 11 gold hats over there to the football and trying to get it out. … These guys are finding a way.”
While the goal is to be playing your best football once district rolls around, McHi has made a statement with back-to-back beatdowns to open non-district play.
And when District 16-5A DI competition opens against crosstown rival McAllen Memorial on Friday, Sept. 18, the Bulldogs will be ready.
McHi wraps up its non-district slate with a road test against PSJA High (0-1) at 7 p.m. next Thursday at PSJA ISD Stadium in Pharr.
“I think we got a really good preseason schedule,” Coach Shelby said. “Next week is going to be tough. PSJA is PSJA. They got a lot of tradition over there and Coach (Horacio) Garza does a great job with his staff offensively and defensively, so we’re going to have to prep. We’re going to have to prep to get ready for their new offense they’re running, their defense and so forth, and the plan is to go over there and put on a good show and compete.”
