BY ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Another UIL soccer season is nearing an end with the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers right there battling for the ultimate prize.
Having won three games in the Class 5A state playoffs, the Chargers are advancing to Friday’s Region IV-5A Tournament at Corpus Christi’s Cabaniss Field.
It will take two victories at the regional tournament to qualify for next week’s UIL state tournament in Georgetown.
“Our team is hungry to reach a higher potential than last year and achieve more,” said Juan Amieva, a junior defensive midfielder for the Chargers who is a two-year starter. “We weren’t satisfied with how we did last year.”
Brownsville Veterans reached the Region IV-5A final at Cabaniss a season ago only to miss out on its first trip to state after coming up short 1-0 against Lopez.
The team is feeling good knowing it has another chance to prove itself and go farther than it did in previous seasons.
“It feels great to be going back to the same place that we made it to last year,” said Jose Zamora, a senior central defender who is in his first season as a starter. “We still have that same desire and motivation to go to state.
“We have a lot of unity and we play as a team,” Zamora added. “This our second time to make it to regionals and our expectations are pretty high for us again.”
So far in the postseason, the District 32-5A runner-up Chargers (26-2-3) have defeated Sharyland Pioneer 4-0, Eagle Pass Winn 4-0 and Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial 2-0.
The Chargers next face District 25-5A champion Austin High (14-10-1) at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Cabaniss. The winner plays Valley View (29-0) or Marble Falls (17-9-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday in the regional final with a trip to state on the line.
“It’s great (that we’re where we’re at) because we actually lost (or graduated) about 15 players from last year’s team,” said Chargers coach Alberto Vasquez, who currently has only three seniors in the starting lineup. “It was one of those things where we had to work on getting a team together real quick this season. We were a little rough at the beginning of the year with kinks here and there, but towards the end of district we were able to find the right combination of players that was going to work best for us.
“We’re playing as a team in every aspect,” Vasquez added. “We attack as a team and we play defense as a team. So it’s one of those things where we’re not counting (exclusively) on individual players to win a game. Instead, it’s a team effort. I think that’s the most important thing to have at this point in the playoffs.”
Besides Amieva and Zamora. the defense for Brownsville Veterans also consists of Frankie Moreno Jr. and Jose Capistran as fullbacks, Abel Martinez as a central defender and Moises Navarro at goalkeeper.
In the midfield, Albert Maradiaga and Diego Bernal are in the center with Marky Boswell and Orlando Sanchez on the wings. The forward is Blair Averyt.
Among the players who contribute off the bench are forward Reynaldo Gonzalez, defender Jorge Muniz and wing Jose Balboa.
“We have a young team this year,” said Moreno Jr., a junior who has started since his freshman season. “There’s a lot of communication and potential on this team. It’s a little surprising that we’ve been up there (as one of the top teams) in the three years that I’ve been here, but it also feels very good to be up there.
“We think we can make it farther this time than we did last year,” he added. “We didn’t do what we were planning on doing (in 2017). We didn’t expect our season to end that way (with a 1-0 loss to Lopez in the regional final).
“If we keep doing what we’ve been doing in these past three playoff games, I think we can go far. We have good communication from the forwards and the midfield on back. We’re scoring goals without allowing any. The potential I see for this team is very high. I think this year is going to be a good one and I wish everyone who can could go out and please support us.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess