This past Friday night, the Highland Park Scots played their home opener at Highlander Stadium against the Monterrey Tech Borregos (Rams) from Mexico. The Scots were looking for their first win of the season after losing to the Aledo Bearcats the previous week 44-3 in the Tom Landry Classic at Allen High School’s new stadium.
Monterrey Tech came into Friday night’s game having lost a very close game to Stephenville, the defending 4-A Texas state champions, 17-16. Both the Scots and the Borregos carried 0-1 records on the year into the match up, and something had to give.
With a 97-degree kickoff temperature, the game got underway. Monterrey Tech intercepted the ball on the Scots' second possession and eventually opened up the scoring with a two-yard run by Marcello Gonzalez at the 5:52 mark in the first quarter.
Highland Park answered back by scoring on the next possession from a 42-yard run by junior quarterback Brooks Burgin. With 3:14 left in the first quarter, the score was 7-7.
Monterrey Tech then took over the game for a while with their rushing attack. Fernando Villanueva got big yardage on rushes to the outside, while Gonzalez was there to punch the ball in the end zone two more times to lead 21-7 at the beginning of the second quarter.
Then, the Scots’ rally began.
With 9:23 left in the first half, Burgin rolled to his left and threw deep to junior receiver Andrew Frost about 30 yards downfield for a touchdown. The extra point was no good, and Monterrey Tech still led 21-13.
Just before halftime, the Scots struck again on a Burgin quarterback keeper up the middle for six yards. Once again the two-point conversion was no good, but Highland Park went into the locker room at halftime trailing by just two points, having been down by 14 points earlier in the quarter.
The Borregos' ground game in the first half had the Scots making adjustments in the locker room, which dictated how the rest of the game would play out.
It was all Highland Park in the second half. The Scots shut down Monterrey’s rushing attack and forced a few turnovers as well, including an interception returned for a touchdown by linebacker Mitchell Kaufman.
After a few more Burgin rushing touchdowns and finally a 7-yard run from senior running back Cole Feigl, the Scots found themselves up 42-21 at the end of the game.
Shutting down Monterrey Tech’s running game and a crisper execution of their offense in the second half were the keys to Highland Park getting their first win of the 2013-14 season.
The Scots’ starting quarterback Brooks Burgin finished the game with 156 rushing yards on 23 carries and three touchdowns. He passed for 273 yards and one touchdown.
This Friday night, the Scots will take on another Bearcat team; this time its Sherman High School, rather than Aledo. Kickoff from Highlander Stadium will be at 7:30 p.m.