By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
EDINBURG — Brownsville’s boys soccer teams are accustomed to winning in the state playoffs.
In their matches, sometimes the victories come sooner, sometimes later.
The latter is what happened Saturday during Hanna’s Class 6A bi-district match at Edinburg North as it appeared for a good while the Golden Eagles were going to win in regulation with a 1-0 score. But, of course, with the sun shining so brightly, that just wasn’t about to happen as the two teams battled at high noon on the Cougars’ grass field under warm, clear skies for almost three hours.
The match wound up going the full distance to penalty kicks.
After trailing 2-1 late in overtime, Hanna benefited from a successful penalty kick to tie the game 2-2 and then won in PKs by outscoring the Cougars 4-2 for an official victory of 3-2 after 100 minutes of regulation and OT action that was followed by the penalty shootout.
“Thank God we had a second chance with that penalty kick (to make it 2-2) and we were lucky enough to have our guys capitalize (in the PKs),” Hanna coach Reyes Prado said. “I’m proud of our guys for keeping their feet on the ground and just taking advantage of the opportunity the Lord gave us.”
The score was tied 0-0 at halftime, 1-1 after regulation and 2-2 at the end of OT.
Edinburg North went up 2-1 in the last minute of the first half of OT on a goal by Carlos Rodriguez, who tallied on a rebound shot that went off the Hanna goalkeeper. The Cougars were looking fairly good at that point until Hanna’s Adrian Rodriguez converted a game-tying PK following a tripping call on Edinburg North in the penalty area with just 2:25 remaining in the second half of OT.
From there, the Eagles pulled off their come-from-behind victory after leading 1-0 and falling behind 2-1.
“This win encourages us to do better and work harder,” said Hanna’s Miguel Payan, a junior fullback who scored his team’s initial goal during the 47th minute to make it 1-0 on a “golazo” from 50-plus yards away on the left side. “People can see us coming to state (now after this win).”
The Hanna victory on Saturday meant all five Brownsville ISD boys teams won their bi-district matches in the postseason this year.
“It was an ugly win,” Prado said. “The first playoff game (after a long layoff like we had of about three weeks) is often a very hard one. Luckily, we had that second chance.”
After Payan’s memorable, long-distance goal, the Cougars jolted Hanna by scoring during the 66th minute as Brandon Perez put in the ball from close range on the left side. Things looked even worse for Hanna when teammate Carlos Rodriguez found the net in the 90th minute and made it 2-1.
Hanna’s scorers in the PKs were Adrian Rodriguez, Aldair Hernandez, Payan and Jose Pompa, whose tally to the left corner was the game-winner.
Scoring in the PKs for the Cougars were David Pena and Juan Gonzalez. The Cougars had an attempt sail high and another PK try blocked by Hanna goalkeeper Victor Villarreal.
Through it all, the District 32-6A runner-up Eagles didn’t give up and now move on to the area playoffs to face District 30-6A champion Laredo United on Tuesday at Roma at either 6 p.m. or 8 p.m.
Edinburg North, which advanced to the Region IV-6A final a year ago, ended the season as the third-place finisher from District 31-6A.
Cougars coach Elias Moran was red-carded for arguing with the center referee over Hanna’s PK that tied the match 2-2 near the end of OT. The Cougars lost a player to a yellow/red a little earlier.