The Odessa High football team entered Saturday’s homecoming matchup with Harlingen South desperate for a confidence boost.

After two disappointing road results against Lubbock Coronado and El Paso Montwood, the Bronchos wanted to get back on the winning track and eventually found a way to get the job done.

Odessa High snapped its two-game slide with a 44-33 come-from-behind victory over Harlingen South Saturday at Ratliff Stadium. The Bronchos scored 22 unanswered points in the final quarter to rally back and win.

“We’re glad to be back in the win column for sure,” head coach Danny Servance said. “The kids are really excited and it just does something for your football team when you get back there.”

The offense came through thanks in part to sophomore quarterback Diego Cervantes, who made his first career start in place of the injured Ivan Miranda.

Cervantes was in good spirits after scoring four total touchdowns and accounting for 282 yards of total offense.

“This game really boosted our confidence,” Cervantes said following Saturday’s game. “After what happened against Montwood, we weren’t feeling good about ourselves and knew we could do better.

“We just wanted to go out and show people what we’re capable of.”

Cervantes and the rest of the Bronchos did just that with a 180-degree turnaround in the running game. Odessa High ran for a season-best 423 yards after producing just 83 yards against Montwood the week before.

Cervantes (172 yards rushing) along with Senjun McGarity (161) and Michael Salas (121) became the first trio of Bronchos to rush for over 100 yards since Derrick Teegarden, Bradley Marquez and Ronnie Marquez accomplished the feat against Amarillo High in 2008.

The difference, Servance said Monday, was keeping things simple.

“We made some changes on the offensive line with some guys moving around,” he said. “We also made some changes in the blocking scheme and tried to simplify some things so that we can just get a body on a body so that they could get a push. They did a great job.”

The victory gave Odessa High some new energy and also presented a step forward as the team — along with the rest of District 2-6A — enters its open week.

Servance said he wants to use this time as a chance to get healthy and get adjusted to a normal schedule after playing two Thursday games and a Saturday game the last three weeks.

After that, it’s on to district play and the opener against crosstown rival Permian and the head coach is confident that things are going in the right direction.

“We’re still improving and you want to keep doing that,” Servance said. “I don’t think it’s too important with how you play early. What’s important is if you’re getting better as the district race begins.”

>> GO, DIEGO, GO: Cervantes reached an individual milestone Saturday with his 110 yards passing and 172 yards rushing. He became the first quarterback since Nick Adams against Lubbock Monterey in 2015 to run and pass for 100 yards in the same game.

>> SPECIAL TEAMS SNAFUS: One area that Servance does want to address over the open week is the special teams unit. The unit struggled after accounting for a 17-yard punt, a fumbled snap on a punt, a snap over the punter’s head and a fumble on a kickoff returned for a touchdown Saturday.

“We had a lot of mistakes on special teams and we really have to get a lot better,” he said. “There’s also the fundamental things like blocking and tackling that we need to work on in order to be successful.”

>> TRYING FOR TWO: Odessa High went for two after all but one of its scoring plays with a swinging gate formation. The Bronchos went 4-for-5 on those conversions for the game and are 6-for-9 this season.

“We just wanted do something to give our kids a spark,” Servance said. “The first one (Saturday) worked really well and it’s something that we’ve been working on as a new wrinkle.”

>> 2-6A vs. 32-6A: District 2-6A finished 4-1 for the second straight season against its intetrregional foes from the Rio Grande Valley in 32-6A. The matchups came about after realignment created the only three six-team districts in Class 6A (El Paso’s District 1-6A, 2-6A and 32-6A).

Permian defeated Los Fresnos 56-14 in the only matchup Friday. In games played Saturday, Midland Lee defeated San Benito 63-12 and Amarillo Tascosa defeated Brownsville Hanna 55-7 in Abilene. Harlingen High was the only RGV team to win its matchup, defeating Midland High 49-13 in Harlingen.

>> SUBVARSITY SCORES: Midland Lee 43, JV White 14; Midland Lee 58, JV Red 26; Midland Lee 52, Freshman Red 8; Midland Lee 32, Freshman White 20.
