TJ GARCIA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
WESLACO — The Sharyland Pioneer-Brownsville Pace girls bi-district soccer match on Thursday was a game of two halves.
Fortunately for the Pioneer Lady Diamondbacks, both halves were completely theirs and together added up to dominating 3-0 Class 5A playoff victory over Pace’s Lady Vikings at Weslaco’s Bobby Lackey Stadium.
Sophomore forward Andrea Reyes led Pioneer with two goals and set the tone early with a ferocious left-footed strike nine minutes into the game. The score appeared to have unnerved Pace, but it emboldened the Lady Diamondbacks and they never let up from there.
Reyes, playing with a laser focus, delivered shot after shot and service ball after service ball to set up her teammates. She and fellow sophomores Kate Padilla and Nikki Cuellar controlled the midfield with a crisp passing game often setting up Reyes for her runs.
Reyes said the game was personal for her.
“I felt like this season I have not played up to my potential, and figured this is the time to play up to my potential and do the things I know I can do,” she said. “Tonight I think I played better, but there’s still more to me than what happened here tonight.”
With Reyes fired up and the rest of the team hitting on all cylinders, Pace virtually had no chance. Pioneer’s speed, accuracy and defense were just too much for the overmatched Lady Vikings.
The Lady Diamondbacks had 10 shots on goal in the first half to Pace’s 3. Pace’s defense had several miscues, and Pioneer leveraged it’s experience and speed to stay on Pace’s side of the pitch most of the night.
“We were communicating very well,” said Cuellar. “We practice that (passing) all the time, and that’s one of the ways you get to score a goal. Short, sharp passes and eventually you try to make a goal.”
That’s how Pioneer scored a second goal. Relentless pressure forced Pace into a mistake, but Reyes was marked when she received a pass about 20 yards out in the center of the field. Still, the diminutive striker balanced the ball with her right, kept her defender back, then whirled around and knocked a laser to the right side of the goal to give the Lady Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead with seven minutes left in the first half.
Four minutes into the second half, senior mid Hannah Padilla finished off Pace and the scoring with a short goal after a another Pace turnover. Pace coach Jesus O. Villarreal said his team made some early mistakes and lacked the speed to keep up with Pioneer’s strikers, but said he was happy to be in the playoffs.
Pioneer coach J.J. Lopez said the win builds momentum for his team going further into the playoffs.
“I thought we did a good job and built some steam as the game went on,” said Lopez. “Part of our plan was to use the width of the field, and I thought the girls did a good job attacking the middle and pushing the ball.”
Pioneer’s defense was not threatened very often, but when Pace did cross midfield, the Lady Diamondbacks back line snuffed out the Lady Vikings quickly. Its defense was led by seniors Taylor Marquez and keeper Stephanie Barrientos, who had six saves.