By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
LOS FRESNOS — The Edinburg Economedes Jaguars overcame the odds and prevailed over the Los Fresnos Falcons 5-4 on penalty kicks Thursday night in a Class 6A bi-district soccer match at Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium.
The District 31-6A runner-up Jaguars lost a player to a red card midway through the second half of regulation and played the rest of the match with only 10 men. Still, they found a way to pull out the victory in PKs against the District 32-6A third-place Falcons.
The Falcons never led, even in the PKs. The best they could ever do was tie the score.
The Jaguars now move on to the area playoffs next week to face District 30-6A champion La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, a 7-0 victor over Del Rio in a bi-district match Wednesday in Laredo.
With the score tied 3-3 after 80 minutes of regulation action, Economedes went up 4-3 as Abraham Alferez headed in the ball off a direct kick taken by a teammate from near midfield with under a minute left in the first half of overtime.
With a little more than four minutes remaining in the second half of OT, Los Fresnos was awarded a PK for a knockdown in the penalty area by the Jaguars. Adrian Torres converted the PK try for the Falcons, making the score 4-4 and eventually sending the match to penalties.
The Falcons went first in PKs and had their initial attempt blocked by Jaguars goalkeeper Rogelio Perez. From there, the Jaguars converted all five of their PK tries to take the penalty shootout 5-4 and win the match to move on in the playoffs.
Making their PK tries for the Jaguars were Christopher Garcia, Orlando Rodriguez, Jonathan Limon, Kevin Mendez and Ivan Contreras, a reserve goalkeeper whose successful PK was the game-winner.
Scoring PKs for the Falcons, who ended their season with a 24-11-6 record, were Kike Rodriguez, Torres, Luis Rocha and Benjamin Perez.
The Jaguars led 1-0 at halftime of regulation and went ahead 2-0 with 10 minutes gone in the second half.
The Falcons got back into the match by scoring back-to-back goals within a 30-second span to make it 2-2 during the 51st minute.
An apparent Olympic goal by the Jaguars off a corner kick taken from the right side gave them the lead again, 3-2, in the 60th minute.
Two minutes later, Economedes lost a player to a red card on a dangerous play at midfield.
With 10 minutes to go in regulation, Los Fresnos tied the score 3-3 and set the stage for each team to add yet another goal, which sent the match to PKs tied 4-4 after 20 minutes of OT.