BY ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
One of the feel-good stories of the soccer season involves the Porter Cowgirls.
After almost 20 years of not making the playoffs since UIL girls soccer first came to the Rio Grande Valley in the late 1990s, the Cowgirls experienced a breakthrough in 2016 and are now in the postseason for the third straight time. They finished third in District 32-5A this year with a 9-5 record and 26 points.
With a playoff berth on the line once again, the Porter girls won their last five 32-5A matches, including Tuesday’s district finale at Edcouch-Elsa. It was a 2-0 victory thanks to goals by Sofia Contreras and Priscila Cortinas, who now has scored 39 times this season and has 116 goals during her four-year Porter career.
In the Class 5A bi-district playoffs, the Cowgirls will go against District 31-5A runner-up Sharyland Pioneer at 7:30 p.m. March 29 at Pioneer.
Abraham Gracia is in his 11th season coaching the Cowgirls and says it sometimes has been tough to keep the faith and persevere with his team in its quests for the playoffs. Now the Cowgirls are creating a tradition of success with each season they reach the postseason.
“All I can say is it feels great, especially when you see all the hard work starting to pay off after so many years (of not qualifying),” Gracia said. “I’m not going to lie, there were seasons when I wanted to call it quits, but thank God, there was always someone there to convince me to keep going, and I did.
“The important thing is that we (coaches) never gave up on our goal of making the playoffs for the first time,” he added. “We kept trying until we did (in 2016), and well, this marks our third straight year to do it. Hopefully we can keep advancing in the years to come.”
The diligence of the players in coming to practice every day and always playing to win means a lot, Gracia said.
“I think that most of all, it’s the commitment, work ethic and great attitude these young ladies have,” he said. “I believe that’s one of the reasons our program has been successful (in recent years).”
PLAYOFF PARTY
Although last year’s all-time high mark of 18 Metro-Area boys and girls teams reaching the playoffs wasn’t quite equaled this season, there’s still a pretty good representation in 2018 with 14 soccer squads from the area qualifying for the postseason. That total includes St. Joseph Academy, which has already ended its season in the TAPPS playoffs.
The UIL playoffs start March 29, which is the day before Good Friday. Most teams in the Valley are opting to play on March 29.
The 6A bi-district matchups between teams from Districts 32-6A and 31-6A were all pretty much determined last week. The 32-5A teams, having completed district competition on Tuesday, were busy with their coin flips on Wednesday.
Among the Brownsville boys bi-district matches that are now set include Brownsville Veterans Memorial vs. Sharyland Pioneer at 7:30 p.m. March 29 in Mercedes and Porter vs. Sharyland High at 6 p.m. March 30 at Weslaco East.
Also for the Brownsville boys, Lopez is tentatively scheduled to play Laredo Martin at a Corpus Christi site at 8 p.m. March 29. It would be a doubleheader with the Pace girls playing Martin at the same location in the opening match at 6 p.m. The site of the doubleheader is what is pending.
For another 5A girls team from Brownsville in addition to Porter and Pace, it’s Brownsville Veterans vs. Sharyland High, but the matchup details were still pending as of Wednesday.
It appears the only teams from the area playing at home next week on March 29 will be the Rivera girls taking on Edinburg North at 7 p.m. at Sams Memorial Stadium and the Los Fresnos boys playing host to Edinburg Economedes, also at 7 p.m.
Both are 6A bi-district matches.
Also, Port Isabel’s boys and girls are in the postseason and expected to play March 29 as well. The Tarpons will be at Hidalgo to play the Pirates and the Lady Tarpons will go against Edinburg IDEA Quest at a site to be determined.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess