BY JOSHUA MCKINNEY, STAFF WRITER
For a city dying for championship success, all it took was one spark to start a fire.
In 2004, the Lopez Lobos stoked the flames for what is quickly becoming an overwhelming blaze for the rest of Texas.
Lopez fought controversy, tragedy and all types of adversity to do the unthinkable 12 years ago: bring a UIL state soccer championship to Brownsville.
Lopez finished with a 27-3-1 record on its way to the Class 4A state soccer championship, the first soccer title for not only Brownsville, but the entire Rio Grande Valley. In the process, the Lobos burned down the barrier keeping Valley teams from making Region IV their domain.
The team’s surprising win is still fresh on the mind of Amadeo Escandon, who coached the Lobos to their state championship and recently finished his 18th year by leading the program to another state tournament appearance.
“That season was phenomenal,” Escandon recalled of 2004. “There was a lot of controversy. We went through a lot of stuff, ups and downs with the kids and the program and everything. It made us strong and by the time we went into the playoffs the team was already psychologically strong. We just kept on rolling, rolling, rolling. We went all the way. That’s something one never forgets.”
Tragedy struck when the father of senior defender Rodolfo Noriega died during the season. Although painful, the devastating situation caused a close team to grow even tighter.
Lopez also had to forfeit two district games, which put them in second place in District 32-4A behind intercity rival Porter.
Escandon said there was a war of words between the two schools that year, so finishing behind the Cowboys in the district standings didn’t rest easy with the Lobos.
Despite that second-place district finish, Lopez rolled through the playoffs, beating Mission Veterans Memorial (4-0), San Antonio Edison (6-0), Sharyland (2-1) before topping defending Region IV-4A champs Alamo Heights (3-1).
That victory set up a rematch of the Battle of Southmost for the Region IV-4A final and a trip to the state tournament. It also gave the Lobos one final chance to prove what they already believed: they were the true district champions.
“Honestly, I think the kids and everybody were focused so much on playing Porter and having that game to decide who was the best in district and having those bragging rights, like ‘Okay, you guys beat us once and we beat you once two, so let’s have a third game and see who goes to state,’” Escandon said.
The players kept their eyes on Porter as they rolled through the Region IV-4A bracket with the same veracity, shutting out two opponents during their run to the district title match.
Via a coin flip, Lopez won the right to host the Region IV-4A championship. Exact attendance figures aren’t known, but crowd estimates hover around 2,000 fans watching two BISD schools fight for the regional crown for the first time since UIL began hosting soccer competitions in 1983.
“That was a real good game,” said Robert Galvan, a 2004 Lopez midfielder and captain who is still the school’s all-time assist leader. “You never see more than 2,000 people in a game. There were a lot of people there. They called it the Battle of the Southmost. It was a real tough game because in Brownsville we play young … (we) start on local teams. We knew most of the guys on Porter.”
Enrique Rivera scored for Lopez to give the team the 1-0 win and its first regional championship. But the hard part wasn’t over for the Lobos. They still had the state tournament.
Jose “Bebo” Ramos, Lopez’s leading scorer that season, said it finally hit them that they had a chance to make history when they arrived in Georgetown for the Class 4A state championship.
“We were just playing the game,” Ramos said. “We wanted to be district champs (at the start of the season) but then we started wining and winning. We finally realized (what we had accomplished) when we were at state. We couldn’t believe it. It was the first time we were there and were so happy to be there. We wanted to bring the state championship home.”
Based on the performances of previous Valley squads, claiming a title wasn’t going to be an easy task. Jose Espitia, an assistant for Lopez that season and current Porter’s boys head soccer coach, said that Valley teams had a tendency to fail once they reached the regional finals or state semifinals.
Sure enough, Lopez’s state semifinal had all the looks of another early exit when the Lobos went into halftime trailing El Paso Del Valle 2-0.
‘How come nobody makes it to the state tournament,’” Espitia recalled his players askining him. His response was sincere and direct: ‘Because they go to regionals and forget to play the way they know how to play. They forget that they can play.
‘Remember that when you’ve been asking why nobody makes it here. (It’s) because we come all the way over here and choke. We forget that we know how to play. We feel less. We feel inferior to them because, I don’t know, we just get scared because it’s people we’ve never seen before. We don’t play the way we know how to play.’”
Lopez spent the next 40 minutes of play digging themselves out of the cemetery housing ghosts of seasons passed.
Victor Cavazos and Ivan Morales scored in the second half to tie the match at 2 before the game winner came from an unlikely source.
Noriega, who the team rallied around following the loss of his father, spent most of the season on the Lobos’ bench and didn’t see a lot of match time during the season.
An injury pushed Escandon to send in Noriega, who was 6-feet, 2-inches tall, for a set-piece play with 14 minutes to go.
The ball found Noriega sitting in the right spot at the right time. He controlled the ball with his chest and struck without letting it touch the ground, scoring the go-ahead goal for the Lobos.
The one-score lead held until the final whistle and sent Lopez to the state championship game, where the vaunted Brenham Cubs awaited.
“That in itself was like, ‘Wow,’” Escandon said. “That was magical. That’s one of those moments that you don’t know how or when. It’s like, well, it’s a blessing from the sky. That’s the only way I could describe it.”
That blessing nearly turned into bad luck, as the Lobos headed into the Class 4A championship with players battling various injuries and illnesses. Facing the unfortunate circumstance of having to play the most important game of its season without a fully able-bodied team, Lopez got an assist from fate. Inclement weather postponed the title match for a week.
It was plenty of time for the Lobos to recover and be at their best against a Brenham team that was on a 32-game winning streak while beating playoff opponents by an average of 4.9 goals a match. That impressive run included a 7-1 win over Longview Pine Tree in the Cubs’ semifinal match.
“We actually were watching one of the games and we heard fans from Brenham and they were saying they would win this one real easy,” Galvan said. “They were beating everybody by three, four goals, so maybe that got overconfident. But once we started playing … we were real concentrated.”
That overconfidence led to underestimation on Brenham’s part, and the week-long delay of the match negated any potential effects illness or injury would have had on the Lopez players.
Goals from Ramos and Morales (who went on to win the state tournament’s most valuable player award) scored to give Lopez the 2-1 win over Brenham and complete the Lobos’ storybook season.
“It’s been like that I guess,” Escandon said. “Every time somebody from Brownsville goes, we’re the underdogs. Now I think people are going to open up their eyes because for the past seven years, at least five teams from Brownsville have gone to state. Now I think all eyes are focusing on this side of the state.”
All eyes should be on Brownsville soccer now, which hasn’t been the same since Lopez’s title.
BISD schools have won three more titles, including two straight undefeated seasons by Rivera in 2015 and Porter in 2016 to go along with a Porter championship in 2006.
Porter and Lopez made history by both qualifying for state in 2016, putting two Brownsville schools in the state tournament for the first time.
Hanna played in the 2013 Class 5A state title match and Lopez has made three more state trips, including another state final match in 2009.
That success has extended to the rest of Valley as well. Hidalgo and Sharyland won state titles in 2009 and 2012, respectively
Valley View made state tournaments in 2013 and 2014, and Progreso qualified for the first time in 2016.
Enrique Soto, a midfielder on Porter’s 2016 state championship team, believes Lopez’s title gave future clubs the mindset that anything is possible.
Espitia has brought to Porter the mentality that nothing is out of reach for Brownsville teams.
“He has taught us that no matter where you’re, no matter (if you’re) from the Valley or from Brownsville, anything is possible.” Soto said. “We can do it. We have the heart to do anything we want and dream big. All season long he brought us that lesson and our dream came true, which was win state.”
Now the pressure’s on Brownsville teams to make it to state every year. Anything less is unacceptable, says Espitia.
“After that, if there’s no Valley team in state it’s a failure,” Espitia said. “Which is sad because last year we had a very good season but it was a failure for us. We thought we had a good team but we ended up losing to Georgetown East View and they made it to the final. It just hurt.”
Players on that 2004 Lopez team keep track of what the BISD teams are doing and keep in touch with former players and coaches.
Members of the team like Galvan feel as though they’re a part of the process that ultimately turned Brownsville into a boys soccer powerhouse.
“I feel real proud,” Galvan said. “I know both coaches (of the last two championship teams). Espitia is personally a friend of my family. I feel real, real proud of him. I can’t imagine the way he feels. He is a real good coach and motivator.
“It’s great that we’re all from Brownsville. We’re all from the Valley. We’re the same people we all played against since we were 10 years old. It feels real good to know that soccer is good and real competitive in the Valley.”
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @joshuabvherald.