Special to 956sports.com

EDINBURG – It wasn’t the bit surprising when Harlingen High coach Greg Yates deflected any notion of Friday’s game against Edinburg North having some revenge factor in it.

It also wasn’t surprising that his players were quick to say it did.

Charlie Powers scored 18 points and the Cardinals’ defense stifled the turnover-prone Cougars to help Harlingen High rout the District 31-5A co-leaders 72-43 on Friday night.

“We haven’t been the team that we should be playing like,” Powers said. “We should be playing like a better team. In this game, we really stepped it up and now we’re playing at another level, which is where we need to stay.”

With more performances like Friday’s, they’ll certainly stay in contention for the District 31-5A championship, which became more attainable after climbing to within one game of now-second-place Edinburg North. Daniel Ybarra added 10 points for the Cardinals (22-6 overall, 6-3 district), who exacted revenge for their 69-65 home loss to the Cougars on Jan. 3.

“It felt good,” Ybarra said of the victory. “I’m just glad my team got after it.”

Harlingen clearly kicked it into high gear on Friday, imposing their will on the Cougars from the opening tipoff. The Cardinals scored the game’s first nine points, building a 14-4 lead midway through the first quarter, and used a 9-1 run in the final 2:41 of the second to take a 32-17 lead into halftime.

A nightmare wouldn’t even begin to describe how the second quarter played out for Edinburg North, which dropped to 15-12 overall and 7-2 in district.

The Cougars were held to four points, one field goal and committed 13 turnovers, frustrating coach Rudy Garcia and a disgruntled home crowd.

“They weren’t used to the press,” said Ybarra, who made a remarkable block in the fourth quarter. “In the first half, we were just going man and then we just wanted to try going into press again to see if that works. We got a couple of steals and those steals led to baskets.”

And it led the Cougars, who were coming off an emotional win against Edinburg High on Tuesday, into a tailspin they could simply not recover from. As one of the best defensive teams in the league, Edinburg North showed no signs of that after struggling to slow down the recharged Cardinals. Harlingen High didn’t let its foot off the pedal in the second half, leading 52-32 heading into the fourth quarter.

Powers scored nine of the team’s 20 points in the third period and was one of four Cardinals to reach double figures.

“I felt really good about myself and I’m glad I helped my team out the way I did,” Powers said.

Brandon Davila scored 13 points for the Cougars. Sam Cavazos had 11.