By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
There is a first time for everything.
It was a first in soccer on Saturday for the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers to win the 36th annual Brownsville ISD boys tournament.
The Chargers defeated La Joya Juarez-Lincoln 5-1 in the tournament’s Gold Division final to cap the three-day, 28-team event at Brownsville Sports Park. The tournament featured pool play in four groups Thursday and Friday with the top two teams in each group advancing to Saturday’s Gold Division quarterfinals.
After finishing second in their pool-play group on Friday, the Chargers won three games in the Gold Division on the final day.
Their showing Saturday was highlighted by a relatively one-sided victory against Juarez-Lincoln, a traditionally strong Valley team and a 2017 UIL state tournament qualifier that roughed up the Lopez Lobos 4-0 in Saturday’s semifinals after topping Hanna 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
In Saturday’s final, played with two 30-minute halves, Brownsville Veterans scored with barely four minutes gone to go up 1-0 and then broke out of a 1-1 tie to lead 3-1 at halftime. From there, the Chargers added a pair of second-half goals and cruised to the title.
“It’s a great, outstanding feeling to win this tournament,” said Mark Boswell, a sophomore midfielder who was named tournament MVP. “We all liked the way we performed throughout the whole tournament to get the trophy.
“This is very positive for us,” Boswell added. “It doesn’t change our mindsets (because we’re already aiming high). We all feel great (about the season) and we all enjoy playing together. This (tournament championship) wouldn’t have been done if the team hadn’t put in work and the team not giving up on each other.”
The Chargers won District 32-5A last season and advanced to the Region IV-5A final in Corpus Christi. They’re eager to achieve those goals again and improve upon them if at all possible.
They went against a familiar opponent in the Huskies.
“We got second in a tournament in Mission during maybe our second year as a program (earlier this decade) and the team that beat us was Juarez-Lincoln,” Chargers coach Alberto Vasquez said. “We love to play against Juarez-Lincoln. They’re always a very good team, and they tend to bring the best out of us. Every year we have our first scrimmage against them.”
Vasquez wasn’t sure how much energy his team would bring to the championship match since it already had played two demanding games earlier Saturday in beating Donna High 2-0 in the quarterfinals and McAllen High 1-0 in the semifinals.
“I’ll be very honest, I was a little bit worried about that,” Vasquez said. “We played so many games (nine in three days) in this tournament and then we were playing 30-minute halves against a very good team in the final, so I wasn’t sure how much strength our players would have left in their legs.
“But they showed their heart and their character. From the first second of the game, they were focused and they were ready. They fought for every ball and that helped us get the win.”
An approximately 35-yard blast from the right side by Francisco Moreno barely four minutes into the action got the Chargers going with a 1-0 lead. Ernesto Salinas tallied a goal for the Huskies about seven minutes later to deadlock the match 1-1, but the Chargers were just getting started. Orlando Sanchez scored on a direct kick from about 20 yards out midway through the first half and teammate Jose Balboa put in the ball on a header after receiving a centering pass from the left side to make it 3-1 just three minutes before intermission.
Boswell and Felipe Esquivel tallied second-half goals for the Chargers to seal the victory.
Juarez-Lincoln coach Victor Ramos said he was glad his team got to play in the BISD Tournament again. The Huskies won one of two brackets in last year’s tournament. Rivera won the other bracket as the event finished with two bracket champions for the third straight time.
“It was a good tournament and there was a lot of good competition,” the Huskies coach said. “A lot of the games were tied at the end (showing just how competitive things were).”
At the end of the day, the Chargers were the ones hoisting a tournament first-place trophy for the first time.
“It’s very nice to come out here and win the championship for Brownsville,” Vasquez said.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess