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SAN ANTONIO — Cardinals head coach Manny Gomez fought back tears as he screamed at the top of his lungs following Friday’s Class 5A, Division I regional game.

His players surrounded him in a half circle, tears streaming down their cheeks.

Gomez pleaded with them, “don’t cry fellas! You have nothing to be ashamed of. What you guys did this season, no one can ever take it away from you.”

Soothing words from a fearless leader. But not one without a heart.

Gomez felt the pain each one of his players felt following their 42-13 loss to Austin Westlake.

“I’m not gonna make excuses,” said Gomez. “All the credit goes to Westlake. That kid Tanner (Price) did a great job. This was a team effort today. I love all of these guys.”

It was uncharacteristic Harlingen football as the Cards committed six turnovers in the game. It was the most all season.

Harlingen (12-1) got eliminated in this same round by the Chaps last year.

“Never in my wildest dream would I have thought we were going to play like this,” Gomez said. “You have to give credit to Westlake. We had six turnovers but they created some of them. We let go of the rope a little. It doesn’t matter at what level you’re playing, you can’t have this many turnovers and win a game.”

Despite a 12-0 deficit early on, a win seemed within reach for the Cardinals.

Cards quarterback Mack Sanchez, who threw a career high three interceptions and fumbled three times too, scored from 3 yards with 2:23 left in the second quarter, cutting the Chaps’ (11-2) lead to 12-7 at that point.

But 2:23 was 2:23 too much time for the Chaps as the Austin school scored 13 points in less than two minutes to take a 25-7 lead at intermission.

First, Austin QB Tanner Price hit Collin Shaw on a 48-yard TD strike on a third-and-10.

Then as Harlingen and Sanchez seemed in good shape driving the ball, the Cards were forced to settle for a field goal.

Or so it seemed.

The 48-yard attempt by sophomore Grant Gorman was blocked and returned about 40 yards by James Robison for a TD that put Westlake up 25-7.

Price finished with one rushing TD and passed for 177 yards and two TDs on the night, completing 10-of-18 with one pick.

“Your pride hurts a little,” Cards RB Pablo Garza said. “I feel like we’ve let down our community. But I don’t regret playing with the best team and for the best coaches.”

The second half started off badly for the Cards as Sanchez threw his second of three picks on the second play of the drive. Bryce Hager returned it to the Harlingen 13.

But the Cardinal Crush defense held as they blocked a field goal from 24 yards out.

Harlingen got the ball back but it led to another turnover.

This time Westlake got its three points from 29 yards to take a 28-7 lead.

Sanchez’s third pick came late in the third and led to a 1-yard scoring run by Price with 36 seconds left in the third. Austin led 35-7 by that time.

Westlake added a late TD when Hager returned a fumble 68 yards for the 42-7 lead.

Sanchez then hit Anthony Reyna for 19 yards for the Cards’ final score of the season.

“We (team) were all so close and that’s why this hurts so much,” Sanchez said. “We all love each other and we know we’ve got each other’s backs. We’re proud of what we accomplished and we didn’t want it to end like this.”

Eladio Jaimez covers District 31-5A for Valley Freedom Newspapers.