By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Play on it and the Porter Nation will come.
After a slight delay of a week, the Porter Cowboys made a successful debut on their new artificial turf soccer field Tuesday, much to the delight of their fans who filled the stands and stood along the fence line.
In the first varsity match to be played on the new field, the Cowboys triumphed over Donna North 2-1 in District 32-5A action.
Porter’s Alexis Armendariz scored twice during the sixth minute as the Cowboys dominated play throughout the match, although Donna North tallied a goal with a minute and a half remaining to make the final score look closer than it seemed.
“For any soccer player it’s a great feeling when you score two times early like that,” Armendariz said. “I thank God for the opportunity to score those goals. It was a beautiful thing.”
The Cowboys were scheduled to host a pair of 32-5A games on the new field last week, but because the seating was not yet quite adequate for playing against a Brownsville opponent and the fencing surrounding the playing surface was not completed, the matches were played at Brownsville Sports Park instead. Porter won both against Lopez (3-1) and Pace (3-0).
The seating at Porter is still a work in progress and there is more fencing to be installed, but the Cowboys couldn’t wait any longer after playing all their first-round 32-5A games on the road and their first two second-round matches at BSP.
Junior varsity games already have been played on the new field, but Tuesday marked the first time for a varsity match there, and the Cowboys made the most of their opportunity to shine at home before the Porter Nation.
Porter improved to 8-2 with 24 points to stay close behind 32-5A leader Brownsville Veterans Memorial (9-1, 27 points), a 6-0 winner at home Tuesday against Edcouch-Elsa.
Donna North is now 4-6 with 12 points.
“We were excited about the fact that we were finally getting a chance to play at home,” Porter coach Jose Espitia said. “We took advantage of two (scoring) chances early in the game. Donna North made some adjustments in its midfield and was countering us very efficiently in the second half.
“It was one of those games that was exactly like we expected — very close,” Espitia added. “We had heard they played a very close game (in losing 3-2 last week) against Lopez. We just want to continue to adjust to playing on our new field and to keep adding points (with wins).”
With barely six minutes gone in the match, Armendariz dribbled in close, got the Donna North goalkeeper to commit to going one direction and then nudged the ball away from him and into the net from close range. Just 47 seconds later, Armendariz fired a shot into the goal from about 15 yards out on the left side to make it 2-0 for the Cowboys.
About the only thing missing from the second half for Porter was another goal that would have signaled a decisive advantage in the match. The Cowboys controlled play throughout and had at least five solid chances in the second half to add their third goal and go up 3-0, but it didn’t happen.
Instead, Donna North’s Christopher Flores tallied from close range with a minute and 30 seconds left to account for the final score of 2-1.
GIRLS GAME
PORTER 4, DONNA NORTH 2
Also making a successful debut on their new home field Tuesday were the Cowgirls, who scored four first-half goals and came away with a 4-2 victory.
Priscila Cortinas scored three of the Cowgirls’ goals and Quetzali Cortez added the other one.
“We’ve missed playing at home, that was the main thing,” Porter coach Abraham Gracia said. “Our girls are playing well. Compared to before, it’s like seeing a different team. They did what we practiced tonight.
“We’re without four starters right now (due to injuries and other matters),” Gracia added. “We have four freshmen playing in the lineup now and they’re stepping it up.”
Coming off two losses, Porter improved to 5-5 with 17 points in 32-5A.
Donna North lost its third in a row and slipped to 3-7 with nine points in the district.