By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Advancing in the state playoffs becomes tougher with each passing round.
The Porter soccer team, ranked No. 1 in the Rio Grande Valley by RGVSports.com, was reminded of that fact Friday during its Class 5A area playoff match against Calallen at Corpus Christi’s Cabaniss Field.
Trailing early by scores of 1-0 and 2-1, the Cowboys reached deep within themselves to come up with the resolve to prevail against the determined Wildcats 4-3 in penalty kicks and move on to the third round of postseason play.
Since the beginning of the season, the Cowboys have talked about their desire to make a deep run in the playoffs and return to state for the first time since 2011.
Fortunately, after dodging a bullet against Calallen, the District 32-5A champion Cowboys (23-0-1) can continue to focus on their ultimate goal.
“First of all, I feel that we’re blessed,” said Uriel Sepulveda, Porter’s senior defensive midfielder and team captain. “We knew it was going to be a hard game, and we never stopped believing (that we would win). There’s always that faith that one brings to the field, and it takes over the whole team.
I told the guys we needed to maintain possession of the ball, keep pushing forward, and the results came in. A win like this one keeps us motivated to work harder. We’re going to get back on our feet, go to practice (today) and get ready for what’s coming next.”
The Cowboys resume their playoff quest against District 31-5A champion Sharyland High, ranked No. 3 in the Valley, in the Class 5A regional quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mission’s Tom Landry. The winner advances to Region IV-5A Tournament on Friday at Cabaniss Field.
Enrique Soto, a senior midfielder and team captain, described Friday’s victory against Calallen as “a cardiac game.”
“It was a game that had a little bit of everything,” Soto said. “It was exciting, painful and everything. It was a wake-up call. We knew that powered by faith we could do it. If we believed, things were going to happen the way we wanted them to and we would succeed. I think this type of game was supposed to happen so it could wake us up. We didn’t want to stop here. The question for us now is ‘How bad do we want it?’”
The Cowboys triumphed despite not playing their best soccer.
They missed a penalty kick in the first half and had an apparent goal waved off due to an offsides call in the second half. With Porter leading 3-2 in overtime, a Calallen free kick skipped off a defender, which altered the trajectory of the ball away from the goalkeeper, and it went in for a score to tie the match at 3.
Then came the penalty kicks. It took 12 players — six from each side — to determine a winner. The Cowboys eventually prevailed 5-4 in PKs after the final attempt by Calallen’s John Schumacher hit the crossbar and bounced away from the goal.
“We thought we were unbeatable and we almost lost,” senior forward and midfielder Alexis Anzures said. “All the hard work we had done since the offseason was about to go in the trash. But God is good. He helped us. We have to learn from this game and keep moving forward. We all have this dream, and we don’t want it to end.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess