GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
DONNA — When the Donna High boys soccer team officially qualified for the playoffs, senior Ricky Ramos was at home, watching TV.
Even after beating Edcouch-Elsa on the final Friday of the District 32-5A season, Donna was stuck in fifth place, out of the playoffs. Ramos had promised his classmates that the team would qualify for the postseason, so he wasn’t planning to show his face in school the following Monday.
“We felt sad. We had the vision to be in the playoffs,” Ramos said. “Us seniors, we didn’t get to play in the playoffs. So we wanted the playoffs so bad.”
Dejected, Ramos slept in until about 9:30 a.m. on Monday. Around 10, he got a call from his teammates.
“They were like, ‘Come to school.’ And I was like, ‘Why?’” Ramos said. “They were like, ‘We made the playoffs!’ And I said, ‘Na, you’re kidding.’ I got mad, because that wasn’t funny. They said they were serious, so I talked to coach, and he said we made it. And so I said, ‘OK, I’ll be there.’ It was pretty amazing.”
As a result of UIL rules infractions that forced third-place Donna North to forfeit the season, Donna High slid up one position to fourth in the standings. Donna used the new life to upset Sharyland High in the bi-district round, catapulting the team into tonight’s area round matchup against Medina Valley at 7 in Corpus Christi.
“We got really emotional, especially for the seniors that were leaving, because they thought it was over,” sophomore Eric Vasquez said. “But fortunately, it wasn’t. We made it.”
Donna entered the year as a relatively young team with just four senior starters, but the group was desperate to reach the playoffs after falling 3 points shy in 2014.
The race in District 32-5A was even tighter, with Donna (22 points) finishing just one win shy of Brownsville Pace (23 points) and Donna North (24 points).
“We had already said the good byes,” Donna coach Mario Hernandez said. “We cried. I had a knot in my throat. … When we found out on Monday that we were in the playoffs, that smile came back to my face. I couldn’t believe it.”
Once Donna was in, it had just three days to regroup and prepare for Sharyland High, one of the best teams in the Valley.
While Donna had finished the district season 8-6 with 20 goals for and 20 goals against, Sharyland High had cruised to an 11-1 record in District 31-5A, outscoring opponents 38-6.
Still, Donna entered the matchup confident. The Redskins and Rattlers had clashed as district opponents for the previous eight years, and Donna had won four of the last six meetings.
“We know the way they play, and they know the way we play,” Hernandez said. “We’ve developed a rivalry. And every time we play, we play at 100 percent.”
Donna did what Hernandez said the team has become known for in recent seasons: pressuring the ball and constantly running. After a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation, Donna prevailed 6-5 in penalty kicks. Ramos said the win set off a celebration, with the team spraying water all around the locker room.
“Our mentality was to win,” Vasquez said. “We tried our best, and we pulled it off. It was just the mentality that we had that makes it special.”
Throughout the year, Hernandez has been telling his player that they can control the game, and he said that the team believes it after the win against Sharyland.
Repeating that success will be the formula to beat a Medina Valley team that Hernandez said is taller and stronger than Donna.
After finding out they had a second chance at the season, Hernandez said his players told him they were ready for any opponent. They proved it with their first win, and the conviction remains strong.
“We’re very confident,” Vasquez said. “We can go way higher than this, and I think we will.”