By ROY HESS THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
CORPUS CHRISTI — The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers are following a familiar path at the Region IV-5A Soccer Tournament.
The Chargers defeated Austin High 3-0 in the Class 5A regional semifinals Friday on an extremely windy night at Corpus Christi’s Cabaniss Field to reach today’s 2 p.m. Region IV-5A final against Valley View, a 6-0 victor against Marble Falls in another semifinal earlier in the day.
Brownsville Veterans is playing in the regional final for the second straight year.
The Chargers came up short 1-0 against Lopez and missed out on their first trip to state in last season’s Region IV-5A final at Cabaniss and will hope for a better result this time around against the Tigers.
Today’s winner advances to next week’s UIL state tournament in Georgetown.
“We’re super excited (about playing Valley View),” Brownsville Veterans coach Alberto Vasquez said. “They’re supposed to be one of the best teams in the Valley and even in the state, so we look forward to the challenge. I would say a very good team from the Valley will be representing Region IV-5A at state (this year).”
The District 32-5A runner-up Chargers (33-2-6) led 1-0 at intermission before adding a pair of goals in the final 40 minutes while going against a very strong wind. Brownsville Veterans also blocked a late Austin High penalty kick.
“We’ve always played better with the wind blowing against us, so we felt pretty confident coming out in the second half that we were going to have some space to send the ball (forward) and it wouldn’t go too long for us,” Vasquez said. “We were able to take advantage of that, so it was great.
“It was a very tough game,” he added. “Austin High had a very good team and they worked real hard the entire game. We knew it was going to be a battle. Our guys played very hard and left everything on the field.”
The Chargers’ Albert Maradiaga, a junior center midfielder, scored on a perfectly placed header during the 24th minute to give his team a 1-0 lead.
“We knew it would be a tough game, but we did great,” Maradiaga said. “We had some opportunities and we knew we had to put them in.
“It felt great (to score our first goal),” he added. “It pumped us up and motivated us to keep going.”
Frankie Moreno Jr.’s goal for Brownsville Veterans in the 51st minute made it 2-0 and teammate Jose Balboa found the net from the right side during the 59th minute to boost the lead to 3-0.
Chargers goalkeeper Moises Navarro stopped a penalty kick by the Maroons with just under three minutes remaining to preserve the shutout. It was Brownsville Veterans’ fourth straight shutout of the playoffs this season.
In a scramble to clear a loose ball just outside the goalmouth as time was ticking away, a Brownsville Veterans defender slipped and fell, landing right on top of the ball. The referee awarded a PK to Austin High, but Case Danzeiser’s attempt was blocked by Navarro to add yet another highlight to the victory for the Chargers.
The District 25-5A champion Maroons ended the season with a 14-8-2 record.