By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
One last opportunity to prepare for District 32-5A competition came Tuesday night for the Pace girls and boys soccer teams as they played host to the Mission High Lady Eagles and San Benito Greyhounds in a non-district doubleheader.
It was quite a successful outing for the Lady Vikings, who defeated Mission High 9-0 in the opener. The Pace boys played the Greyhounds in the late game and won 1-0.
District 32-5A opens Friday for the Pace squads as they take on Brownsville Veterans Memorial in another doubleheader. Brownsville Veterans is designated as the home team Friday. The matches will be played at Lopez because of field conditions at Brownsville Veterans.
Tuesday’s victory for the Pace girls was highlighted by senior forward Kryssie Rivera, who scored six of the Lady Vikings’ nine goals. Her first four tallies gave Pace a 4-0 advantage at halftime.
Rivera added two more goals in the second half while teammates Alexis Guajardo and Arianna Garcia scored two and one goals, respectively.
“I definitely think this was a (good) start to our season (considering 32-5A begins Friday),” Rivera said. “We have had a couple of injuries, so this win will give us a little more confidence in how we play on this field. We’re the only (varsity) team (in Brownsville ISD) that is playing (district games) on a grass field.
“I thought I would definitely try to take advantage of every shot I had tonight, considering I’m so close to passing that record (of reaching 100 career goals),” Rivera added. “Hopefully, I’ll keep scoring, we’ll keep winning and it’ll be the best.”
The standout striker, a starter since she was a freshman, now has 96 goals in her career at Pace. She’s scored 25 goals so far this season.
The city record for girls is held by Rivera’s Yesenia Ortiz, who had more than 100 in her career that ended a few years ago.
As 32-5A competition draws closer, Lady Vikings coach Jesus O. Villarreal likes what he sees right now from his team.
“We’re doing our best to polish things up for district,” Villarreal said. “I ask these girls to do something and they do it even better than I expect, so that’s a real plus.”
On Tuesday, barely four minutes into the match against the Lady Eagles, Rivera found the net from the right side on a shot from about 20 yards away. A shot by Rivera from about the same location with nine and a half minutes gone made it 2-0. Her header off a corner kick taken from the right side during the 13th minute increased the tally to 3-0 and a well-placed direct kick from just outside the penalty area in the 31st minute gave the Lady Vikings a 4-0 edge at intermission.
From there, it was just a matter of what the final score would be.
Meanwhile, in the boys match, both teams played on even terms throughout the game that was decided with seven minutes gone in the second half when Pace’s Eduardo
“Lalo” Ramirez rifled a shot past the goalkeeper and into the net from about 20 yards out.
Ramirez came in fast on the attack and the San Benito goalkeeper came out in an effort to cut off the angle of the shot, but as it turned out, he was caught out of position and paid the price for it. Leading 1-0, the Vikings held on to win despite missing a penalty kick in the final 10 minutes.
“I think it’s always nice to finish off the pre-district schedule with a win, and especially without receiving (too many) goals on our side,” Pace coach Mario A. Zamora said. “To me, we’ve had an excellent tournament in Houston and the BISD Tournament to help us have a good start to the season. We’ve polished little details that we have to have done right.”
San Benito defeated Pace in a scrimmage earlier this month. It was Pace’s turn to win Tuesday.
“It was definitely a good test (tonight),” Greyhounds coach William Huerta said. “Pace brings a good game every time we play them, and this was the second time we’ve played them (this season).
“We made some mistakes against them tonight, but we’ll learn from it,” Huerta added. “We’ll get better. I see my team most definitely ready for District (32-6A). We know we’re in a tough district and we hope to compete this year. We’re going to work hard and come out and do our best.”