KEVIN LU | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
EDINBURG — The Brownsville Rivera boys soccer team used a big second half to beat Edinburg High 5-0 in their Class 6A bi-district playoff match Thursday at Cats Stadium.
It was a scoreless tie going into halftime, but shortly after the break, Edinburg High earned a red card on a hand ball in the penalty area. Rivera worked the ball through the Bobcats defense and got an open look at goal. The Raiders’ shot hit the arm of the Bobcats’ Roberto Lopez, who had slid to the ground defending. Before the goal went in, referee Arturo Ibarra whistled the play dead and showed an incredulous Lopez the red card.
Raiders captain Isidro Martinez calmly converted the penalty kick to give Rivera a 1-0 lead in the 43rd minute.
“It was a red card because the ball was going in,” Rivera coach Salvador Garcia said. “Also the fact that we were playing with the wind on our back, that was a big, big difference.”
With its opponent down a man, Rivera scored off a corner kick two minutes later. Alfredo Villarreal passed toward the middle of the field, Martinez faked a kick and let it roll through to Alexis Herrera, who fired it into net for a 2-0 lead.
Just a bit later, a Raiders throw-in was deflected by Eliseo Ortiz, and it landed at the head of Julian Espinoza for an easy goal right in front of the goal. Rivera scored three times in five minutes during a stretch in the second half.
“We took the ball a little bit slower, we found the gaps,” Garcia said. “Then they got the red card and from that point on, it became easier for us.”
Edinburg High took its first shot of the match about three-quarters of the way through. In the 57th minute, Jorge Castillo took a free kick from 35 yards out. Luis Calderon’s deflection forced a diving save by Raiders keeper Jesus Zaragoza.
Martinez scored his second goal of the night off a free kick from 25 yards away for a 4-0 Rivera lead. Garcia immediately afterward pulled most of his starters with 21 minutes left.
“They had a lot of speed, a lot of touch,” Edinburg High coach Luis Cardenas said. “It worked the first half. Unfortunately in the second half, they got that penalty kick, the red card and with one player less, it was very hard to compete with them.”
The Bobcats had a few chances to get on the board late, but the final portion of game was marked by several confrontations between the teams and some between Edinburg High players and the referee Ibarra. Ibarra also gave Cardenas a yellow card after a player was asked off the field and Cardenas substituted the player in after play had restarted.
Rivera advances to play the winner of tonight’s match between Del Rio and La Joya Palmview.