By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Porter Cowboys wasted little time in taking command of Friday’s District 32-5A soccer match against crosstown rival Pace.
Playing at Pace in a duel between undefeated 32-5A co-leaders, the Cowboys (4-0 district) scored two minutes into the action en route to a 4-0 win over the Vikings (3-1).
“Coming to Pace, we were aware of the fact that we’ve always had close games here against them,” Porter coach Jose Espitia said. “Our guys were focused, and they wanted to prove that we have a better team than what we showed in the (bad) second half we had Tuesday against PSJA Southwest (during a 3-2 victory).
“The players were also looking at this game as a Brownsville ‘clasico’ because they know going against Pace is the only time we’ll play another Brownsville team in district now,” Espitia added. “In some sort of way, it was like a city championship (of 32-5A teams). We prepared for it believing it would be a very close, tough game. The players were connected and everything went our way today.”
Two minutes into the match, David Pacheco scored from the right side, giving the Cowboys a 1-0 lead. It became 2-0 with eight minutes to go in the half when Anthony Cuellar tallied from close range.
Porter added a pair of goals during the second half. The first of the two scores came on a penalty kick converted by Alexis Armendariz after a tripping call in the area on Pace. That made it 3-0 with 30 minutes remaining.
Julio Perez’s goal from close range with four minutes to go completed the scoring.
“We were concerned (about Pace) because we wanted to stay in first place (in 32-5A),” said Perez, a senior forward. “Thanks to God, we got the result we wanted. It gives us more confidence, but we know we still have to continue working hard.”
Added Cuellar, a sophomore central defender, “It felt great (to score) because this game was like a final, so, yeah, it felt very good. We just have to keep on working hard.”
Pace was coming off Tuesday’s 4-0 win at PSJA High.
“Porter was better than us tonight,” Vikings coach Mario A. Zamora said. “We still have to work on details so we can get better. We started playing a little bit late (after Porter went ahead 1-0).
“We still have a long way to go,” Zamoraadded. “We’re going to fix the things we need to fix, keep going, and let’s see what happens in the second round of district against Porter.”
Pace next plays Tuesday at Donna North,and Porter is at home against Donna High the same night.