By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
An opportunity one year in the making has arrived for the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds.
Last soccer season, they reached the TAPPS state semifinals only to be edged 1-0 by Houston Awty International.
The Bloodhounds have waited an entire year for another chance to continue their quest for a TAPPS state championship.
Tuesday is the day.
SJA (18-5-1) returns to the semifinals to face Addison Trinity Christian (18-4-2) at 1 p.m. at San Antonio Central Catholic’s Bob Benson 1966 Stadium. It’s the same field where the Bloodhounds won 1-0 on Saturday against Fort Worth Nolan on a late first-half goal by Gerardo Moses in the TAPPS quarterfinals.
SJA coach Tino Villarreal said the Bloodhounds can expect to encounter a Trinity Christian team that is tall, fast and well-organized, basically an opponent every bit as strong as Nolan and probably even better.
“From what I’m hearing, Addison doesn’t really have one standout player,” Villarreal said. “They just work really well together and position themselves well. They’re an all-around team. We expect that they’re going to try to push us around some with their size. Again, we have to not make mistakes and play really smart, especially on their set pieces.
“We would love to pull off the win,” he added. “It would be huge for our boys, our school, our community and all of the above, really.”
A semifinal victory would advance SJA to the TAPPS state championship at 6 p.m. Friday in San Antonio at a different field against Awty (22-3-1) or Plano John Paul II (19-5).
Moses, a senior forward, leads the Bloodhounds with 24 goals. Jose Kauachi, a junior center midfielder, comes next with 16.
“I feel like we’re playing with a greater intensity that we were maybe lacking in some of our games earlier this season,” Kauachi said. “We’re giving it all we have.”
The Bloodhounds opened the TAPPS playoffs with a 4-0 win at home last Tuesday against Plano Prestonwood. Then came Saturday’s 1-0 victory against Nolan.
SJA has never made it to a state title game in soccer. Last season was the first time for the Bloodhounds to reach the state semifinals.
“First and foremost, we’re representing St. Joseph, and it’s also a big deal for us to be representing Brownsville as well,” Villarreal said. “When you think of Brownsville soccer, there’s a certain mystique that goes with it considering all the accomplishments that have been achieved by schools such as Rivera, Lopez, Hanna and Porter at the (UIL) state level.
“We’re proud to be representing our city,” he added. “We want to live up to the name of Brownsville soccer.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.