By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The St. Joseph Academy soccer team faces its biggest challenge of the season at 1 p.m. Tuesday against Houston Awty International in the TAPPS state semifinals.
The match between the Bloodhounds (16-3-2) and the Rams (14-3) will be played at Dugan Stadium on the Texas A&M-CorpusChristi campus.
The winner advances to Saturday’s TAPPS state final at 6 p.m. in Waco against John Paul II of Plano(13-3) or El Paso Cathedral (14-3).
“I think we’re at a very high level now compared to back when we started (in November),” said Mario Ramirez, SJA’ssophomore goalkeeper who blocked a penalty kick during the eighth minute Saturday to give his team an emotional lift that led to a 1-0 quarterfinal win over Dallas Bishop Lynch in San Antonio. “We’ve been picking up. We’re not at our best yet, but we are ready to play the game. We have always been physically prepared, and now we have to be (even more) mentally prepared, no matter the opponent we face.”
Added teammate Gerardo Moses, a junior forward who scored the winning goal against Bishop Lynch during the 63rd minute, “I feel really excited because this is a very good opportunity.We’ve never been this far (in the playoffs). I think we have a good chance to make history for our school.
“I just want to give my best,” Moses added. “The whole team, we just want to play for our fans and for ourselves as well. I think we deserve it because we’ve put in a lot of hard work. Hopefully it will pay off in the game.”
When asked what type of team the Bloodhounds expect to face, SJA coach Tino Villarreal said, “ Awty International, their team name says it all. They’ve got players from all over the world. From my scouting report, I’ve heard they play a lot of team ball just like us. I’m told there’s not one specific standout, but there are several pretty good players. It’s kind of like us because we have some good ones. They distribute the ball well by moving it up and back, left and right. They’re supposedly very structured, very organized in what they do.
“Awty sounds a lot like us, so it should be a really good game between two similar teams,” Villarreal added. “We’re playing on an artificial turf field at a brand new $9.6 million facility. To my knowledge, we’re the first outsiders (not from A&M-CC) allowed to use it.”
32-5A UPDATE
District 32-5A begins its second round of conference action Tuesday with boys and girls doubleheaders. The boys play first at 6 p.m. with the girls to follow during the second half of district.
The Porter Cowboys (7-0, 20 points) lead the way in 32-5A and open the second round at Donna North. Behind the Cowboys in the 32-5A standings are PSJA Southwest (5-2, 16 points), and then Pace, Donna High and Donna North (all 4-3 with 12 points).
Porter coach Jose Espitiasaid earlier this season his team expects to receive each district opponent’s best effort, especially when the Cowboys are playing on the road like they will be Tuesday.
““We’ve told our players that some of these (32-5A) teams may not have the tradition that Porter has, but they’re going to come out (playing hard) and have a strategy to beat us,” Espitia said. “They try to play for a tie and send the game to penalty kicks. It forces you to become more creative (in trying to score). On paper, it may look easy (against some of these teams), but in reality, when you come to a place like these places (on the road), it’s not going to be easy. We have to take advantage of playing at home and give it 110 percent outside of it (to win).”
On the road during the first half of district, the Cowboys almost went to penalties before winning 2-1 at Edcouch-Elsa on Jan. 30 and then prevailed 2-1 in penalties last Tuesday at Mercedes, so they are taking nothing for granted at Donna North.
“Our motto this season is ‘Unfinished Business’ (after missing the playoffs in 2014),” Espitiasaid.
SEEKING IMPROVEMENT
The Pace boys and girls will start Tuesday’s second half of district at home against Mercedes, beginning with the boys match at 6 p.m.
Both Pace teams defeated Mercedes during the first round Jan. 27, the boys winning 3-0 and the girls triumphing 3-1.
After starting the first round 3-0, the Pace boys won only one of their next four matches, so Vikings coach Mario A. Zamora said the goal for his team is to get back on track.
“To me, I saw that the first round passed really fast with ups and downs,” Zamora said. “We started with three consecutive wins and then we struggled defensively (to end the first round) and left behind many points on the way.
“For the second round, we cannot make the mistakes we had in the first round,” Zamora added. “We have to play every single game like a final so we can get three points each time. We have to take advantage of playing at Pace as most (five of seven) games in the second round will be home matches for us, and that’s a plus.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.