By ROY HESS | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
It’s a remarkable feat for boys and girls soccer teams from the same school to advance to the regional tournament in the same season.
Rarely does it happen in the Rio Grande Valley, particularly in any sport other than soccer.
But here they are, the boys and girls of Rivera, headed to San Antonio to play in Friday’s semifinals of the Region IV-6A Tournament at Blossom Athletic Center.
The District 32-6A fourth-place Rivera girls (11-13-5) go against District 25-6A third-place Austin Lake Travis (13-7-4) at 1 p.m., while the 32-6A champion Rivera boys (22-4-4) play District 26-6A runner-up San Antonio Lee (16-5-4) at 5 p.m.
The winners of those matches play in Saturday’s regional finals with a trip on the line to next week’s UIL state tournament in Georgetown.
The Rivera boys last went to the regional tournament in 2015, which was the year the Raiders captured the inaugural Class 6A state title in boys soccer.
“This is a blessing to be going back to the regional tournament with this team,” said Julian Espinoza, a senior attacking midfielder for the Raiders who was a freshman on the squad in 2015. “Rivera has been waiting for something special like this. It’s a blessing.”
The Raiders defeated PSJA Southwest 2-0 in the regional quarterfinals last Friday to gain their berth opposite Lee at the regional tournament.
“Our dream (of going to state) is always the same,” Raiders coach Salvador Garcia said. “Coming into the season, the standard and expectations are (always) so high. Going deep in the playoffs (but not reaching state) is not enough. In order for us to realize that dream, we’ve got to go to San Antonio.”
This marks the first time to make it to regionals for the Rivera girls, who set a school record for their program by reaching the third round of the playoffs a year ago. Now they’re advancing even farther after defeating McAllen Rowe 1-0 in the regional quarterfinals, also last Friday.
“This is the best (girls) team Rivera’s ever had and I’m more than glad to be a part of it,” said Alyssa Ayala, a junior midfielder for the Lady Raiders. “I’m just happy we get to keep practicing (and extend our season).”
Lady Raiders coach Peter A. Rodriguez said his team wants to add to its accomplishments this season.
“There are a lot of expectations that we have,” he said. “Our goal at the beginning of the season was to do better in district and in the playoffs than we did last year (and we have).
“No one goes to the regional tournament out of luck,” he added. “We’re going to go up there and play (hard) and do what we have to do. We’ll play how we know how to play and go against our opponent head to head. We’re not going to go out there and play conservatively. We’re going to play to win.”
It’s only happened two other times that a Valley school has sent both its boys and girls soccer teams to the regional tournament in the same season.
In 2012, when the regional tournament was played at Brownsville Sports Park, the Sharyland High boys and girls made it to that level of the playoffs. The Sharyland High boys won the regional, advanced to Georgetown and won the 5A state title. The Sharyland High girls made it to the regional final, but came up short in a 1-0 loss against San Antonio Churchill.
The second time it happened was in 2014 when the Lopez boys and girls advanced to the regional tournament in San Antonio. The Lopez girls lost at Blossom in the regional semifinals, while the Lopez boys went on to play at state.
Now it’s Rivera’s turn on the regional stage.
MILESTONES
Forward Kryssie Rivera and center midfielder Alma Perez, both seniors, were among the standout players this season for the District 32-5A champion Pace Lady Vikings (28-2-1).
The season for the Pace girls ended one victory shy of a first-ever trip to the regional tournament when the Lady Vikings were eliminated from the playoffs 5-1 by Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial last Friday.
Rivera led the team with 56 goals this season and finished with 127 for her four-year Pace career. Perez finished with 101 assists during her Pace career.
Rivera has signed to play soccer at UTRGV next school year and Perez also plans to play soccer in college.
NO MORE GRASS
The soccer field at Corpus Christi’s Cabaniss Field, site of this weekend’s Region IV-5A Tournament, no longer has a natural grass surface. Like many other fields, it has an artificial surface for the first time this season. The soccer field is next to a football stadium, which already had an artificial-surface field.
In many ways, the natural grass surface at Cabaniss had been a home-away-from-home place to play for Valley teams over the years, particularly those from Brownsville.
The Valley’s first state soccer title came at Cabaniss in 2004 and was won by a Lopez team that snapped a 32-game winning streak by favored Brenham in the Class 4A final, triumphing 2-1. The originally scheduled 4A state title match a week earlier was rained out in Georgetown and the game was rescheduled at Cabaniss.
There are other important memories of games at Cabaniss. Porter edged Pace 2-1 in overtime there in the 2016 regional final before going on to win its second state title. Last year, Lopez slipped by Brownsville Veterans Memorial 1-0 in the regional final to advance to Georgetown.
Brownsville Veterans and Valley View will represent the Valley at Cabaniss this weekend. Let’s see what happens.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess