By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
PORT ISABEL — Sometimes the weather plays as big a factor as the players on the field.
Such was the case for the Port Isabel Lady Tarpons on Friday.
Both Port Isabel and La Vernia dealt with high-powered winds that at times reached speeds greater than 30 mph. The Lady Tarpons took advantage of their goal positioning with four second-half scores to defeat La Vernia 4-1 in a Class 4A girls area round playoff match at Port Isabel.
The Lady Tarpons’ Celia Garza and Susana Torres each scored a pair of goals in the second half to lead the way. Garza connected on a penalty kick and a corner kick, while Torres found herself controlling the ball off a rebound before putting both shots in the net.
“I made one in first round and I made one (Friday),” Garza said of her corner kick goal. “So I guess it isn’t just luck anymore. I kept my shoulders down and I was calm, I focused and I made it.
“This wasn’t the first time we’ve dealt with wind like this so we used it as an advantage for us.”
Down a goal to start the second half, Port Isabel was happy to play with the wind instead of against it like it did for the match’s first 40 minutes.
“We knew we wanted to go against the wind in the first half,” Port Isabel coach Jesus Cardenas said. “If we gave up any goals we’d have still have a shot in the second half.”
In the 49th minute, La Vernia was called for a handball inside the goalie box. Port Isabel’s Celia Garza calmly put the penalty kick past La Vernia goalkeeper Audrey Mayes to tie the match at 1.
Less than three minutes later, Garza lined up a corner kick for the Lady Tarpons. She put it up in the air and used the wind to her advantage as it curved just right past Mayes to give Port Isabel a 2-1 lead in the 52nd minute.
The Lady Tarpons continued to attack, again using the wind to their advantage. Torres found herself in the right spot after the Lady Bears defenders misplayed the ball. Torres got a good look and floated it high and just under the cross bar out of the reach of Mayes and gave the Lady Tarpons a 3-1 advantage in the 60th minute.
In the 67th minute, it was Torres once again controlling the rebound. In almost the same spot as her previous goal from 20 yards out, she let it fly, sailing it above Mayes’ outstretched reach. The ball found the back of the net to finish out Port Isabel’s rally and account for the final score.
The Lady Bears had several chances in the second half, found playing into the wind a much tougher challenge than playing with it.
“I felt like it took awhile to get adjusted,” La Vernia coach David Chavez said. “I don’t like to blame it on the wind but it was a factor. We never played in the wind all season.”
La Vernia kept the pressure on Port Isabel goalkeeper Melisa Lopez in the first half. The Lady Bears took seven shots on goal and had chances from four corner kicks as the Lady Tarpons dealt with the wind factor on defense as well.
La Vernia finally broke a scoreless tie in the 39th minute as Summer O’Brien controlled a rebound after a corner kick by Cheyenne Brizzee. O’Brien took the shot and found the goal from about 10 yards out to give the Lady Bears the one-goal advantage, an edge they took into halftime.
But eventually, the wind took away one of La Vernia’s strengths.
“Even when we were going up wind our passing wasn’t connecting,” Chavez said. “Our passing is one of our strongest points, but the wind gave our opponent the edge and stalled things that we tried to do. Hats off to them, they played well and good luck to them in the next round.”
The Lady Tarpons struggled offensively against the wind in the first half, getting just two shots on goal and no corner kicks compared to seven shots on goal and three corner kicks after the break going with the wind.
Fortunately, Port Isabel did what its coach asked them to do: keep taking shots.
“It feels great,” Cardenas said. “We encouraged the girls to keep trying to take shots, you don’t know what can happen. Fortunately it worked out for us.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.