By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
It was a beautiful day for soccer and a perfect time to win a district opener.
Playing with sunny skies overhead and quite pleasant temperatures in the 70s, the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds erupted for four goals within an 11-minute span of the first half Saturday en route to capturing their TAPPS district opener 5-0 against San Antonio St. Anthony’s at Canales Field.
“It’s very important for us that we started 1-0 in our district,” said Andres Rico, a senior midfielder for the Bloodhounds. “I think we’re sending a message to the rest of our district that we’re out there and we’re going for the district title again.”
SJA went 16-4-2 last season and reached the TAPPS Division I state semifinals after winning a district championship in soccer for the first time.
After several frustrating near misses early Saturday, the Bloodhounds (2-0 overall) found their range 10 minutes into the contest, and it soon became 4-0.
“We’ll correct those (early) misses in practice,” Rico said. “The goals will come by themselves. We just have to practice our shots and get ready for our next game.”
All of SJA’s goals during the match were tallied from close range. SJA’s ability to bring the ball in so close with such frequency gave the Yellowjackets’ goalkeeper fits, although he did a better job of stopping shots during the second half.
Back-to-back goals by Mario Garcia and Gerardo Moses within a 28-second span during the 10th minute gave the Bloodhounds a 2-0 advantage. Six minutes later, Moses appeared to nudge the ball into the net with his shoulder to make it 3-0. During the 21st minute, Garcia fired in another shot while situated in the goalmouth to boost the lead to 4-0.
“A win is always good, but we missed a lot of scoring opportunities today,” SJA coach Tino Villarreal said. “We definitely have to work on our shots on goal.
“I think we started off (too) excited and (too) eager,” Villarreal added. “It’s early in December and here we are already in district, so we came out just a little too eager and took quicker shots than needed.
“We definitely left a lot of goals out there, and that’s what we have to improve on if we want to (successfully) defend our district championship “
The Bloodhounds made an 11-player substitution during the second half and finished the match with their reserves on the field.
With five minutes remaining, Anuar Atiye emerged with the ball from a group of players just in front of the goal and sent it into the net for the Bloodhounds’ final tally against the Yellowjackets (3-4, 0-4 district).
“I just want to thank all those in the crowd (who came to support us),” Rico said. “It was a good win.”
SJA continues TAPPS district play at 3 p.m. Saturday at San Antonio Antonian.
“We always know that (San Antonio) Central Catholic and Antonian have good teams, so next Saturday should be interesting for us,” Villarreal said.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.