NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
MERCEDES — RGV soccer giants Brownsville Lopez and Valley View met in Mercedes to try to punch their ticket to the Class 5A Region IV Tournament next week in Corpus Christi.
Valley View looked in control with a two-goal halftime lead but eventually needed penalty kicks to hold off the Lopez Lobos 3-2 in a regional quarterfinal instant classic on Friday.
The Tigers didn’t want to be in penalties after watching their lead disappear, but once they got to that point, they were confident their scouting would give goaltender Elian Chavez the opportunity to be a hero.
In the third round of the shootout, with the teams tied at a goal each, Adrian Rodriguez scored for the Tigers and Jafet Morales stepped up to the dot for the Lobos.
Morales went high left, but so did Chavez, who kept the ball out with a firm glove save.
“Since before the game, we talked about it,” Chavez said through assistant coach Israel Lince. “We were trying to stay positive and avoid PKs, but when they came, we talked to each other with the secret book, and we won the game, thank God.”
Inside that book was the direction each Lopez shooter was expected to place the ball. Only one shooter strayed from the scouting report.
Sophomore Carlos Medina was the shooter who sent the Tigers onto the next round with his fourth-round conversion.
The youngster wanted the game on his foot when coach Damian Magallan was deciding the order of shooters. Medina was happy to be the player who sent the Valley View faithful into a frenzy.
“I just went confident,” Medina said. “I told my coach I wanted to kick the fifth one. When I was walking up, I saw all the people just pumping me up. I just faked the goalkeeper and scored.”
During the first minute of the game, the Tigers sent a dangerous attack forward that ended up on the foot of Mario De Los Santos. Most of the Lopez defenders thought the forward would take a shot, but he opted to dish the ball off to Rogelio Saldivar streaking down the right flank. The shot was stopped, but Lopez couldn’t count the bullet dodged yet.
On the ensuing corner kick, Saldivar connected with his head to beat the keeper and give the Tigers an advantage.
De Los Santos had two golden opportunities that went just wide of the net, but with 3:05 to play in the half, he wouldn’t be denied on a shot across his body that beat Lopez keeper Angel De La Garza.
Lopez’s best chance followed shortly after the opening goal, and the Lobos also earned three free kicks in the 30-yard range but couldn’t beat Chavez.
Magallan knew Lopez wouldn’t go quietly.
“We knew beforehand that we had to prepare ourselves, because Lopez went three years in a row to state, so we worked a lot through the week,” Magallan said through an interpreter. “It was really helpful for us to start with the lead, because we knew they were going to come back, and then we made a couple of errors… and then we won the game in the end.”
Medina knew the Lobos weren’t done, even when Lopez lost Sebastian Benavides to a red card just 7:13 into the second half.
“They never stopped running,” Medina said. “They always kept fighting and fighting and fighting until they got the first goal. That’s where we started to lose our minds. With the 2-2 (goal), we started to get a little bit calmed down. We could have won the game easily, but we complicated it ourselves.”
The first goal came after an error by Tigers defender Adrian Rodriguez, who tried to clear the ball into two oncoming Lobos. One of the Lopez attackers stuck out a foot to tap the ball in past Chavez.
Less than 2 1/2 minutes later, still down 10 players to 11, Lopez’s Jose Echavarria squeezed a shot between the legs of a falling Chavez to equalize.
Valley View avoided a complete meltdown even as Victor Ureña and Jorge Amaya earned red cards to flip the advantage to Brownsville, 10 players against nine.
Chavez and the Valley View defense were steady when tested — a rarity for the Tigers, who mowed through District 31-5A play and outscored their first two playoff opponents 11-4.
“It’s always important for me to try to make a good first save. That way I can get my confidence,” Chavez said. “After that, they were still shooting at me, but my confidence was really high. That’s why I had a good game.”
Valley View advances to face Marble Falls, which was a 5-3 winner over Dripping Springs on Friday. The teams clash at 4:30 p.m. next Friday at Corpus Christi’s Cabaniss Field.