By ROY HESS | The Brownsville Herald
LOS FRESNOS — For whatever reason, the West squads always tend to have the most success in the East-West Senior Soccer Showcase presented by the Rio Grande Valley Soccer Coaches Organization.
Just last year, the West won all four games in the event when there were boys and girls matches for Class 6A and sub-6A players from the Valley.
But this year, with just one game for the girls and another for the boys at the 11th annual Showcase, it was the East girls’ turn to win as they were victorious 3-1, while the West boys prevailed 3-2.
The games were played on the artificial turf field at the Los Fresnos High School campus. Since only two games were played instead of four, the halves were increased to approximately 50 minutes to allow more playing time for the participants with college recruiters in attendance.
“This was a good experience playing in a game like this,” said Leah Leal of Harlingen High, who scored the first goal for the East girls. “It’s great to come together like this and make one big all-star team. We got to see how competitive we could be and how good we could be together just like the teams from the West side.
“The fact that we were able to get the win made it great to play with these girls on this team,” added Leal, who not long ago signed to play soccer at UT-San Antonio next school year. “I’m excited for the future (of playing my sport in college) and today was a good experience towards that.”
Leal sent a shot into the net from about 20 yards in the early stages of the match to give the East girls a 1-0 advantage at halftime.
The West girls were awarded a penalty kick in the first minute of the second half after a tripping call in the penalty area. But the West PK attempt sailed high and the East remained in the lead.
About 20 minutes into the second half, Donna North’s Elizabeth Reyes, who finished her high school career with 144 goals, made it 2-0 for the East girls by scoring from approximately 15 yards away.
With nine minutes left, Cynthia Perez of Mercedes lofted a shot on an arc that took a bounce and went in, giving the East girls a 3-0 advantage. Then with six minutes to go, a determined Kaitie Watson of Sharyland High brought the ball down the middle on a breakaway, surged ahead of defenders and fired a strong shot into the net past the goalkeeper to help the West avoid a shutout.
Yes, it was a good day for the East girls.
“I’m completely excited and happy that I got another opportunity to coach in this type of all-star game,” said Pace coach Jesus O. Villarreal, who directed the East girls along with Tony Garcia of Donna North and Michael Gomez of PSJA High. “It’s just amazing to coach these girls. They’re very coachable.
“Winning, of course, is part of the game, and the idea for the girls was to enjoy this competition and to be able to play one last time (as high school players),” added Villarreal, who had a couple of his Pace girls on the field for the East. “If the girls have already signed (to play in college), that was fine. Another objective was to have the ones who hadn’t signed to get that chance.
“It’s really good that we can do something like this for our Valley soccer players (and see them sign to play in college). We had about 28 or 29 girls show up today and we were able to play everybody about the same amount of time, so that was great.”
Mario Ribera of Sharyland High and John Martinez of McAllen Rowe coached the West girls.
In the boys match, the West went up 1-0 during the first 20 minutes on an “own goal” or “autogol.” The East evened the score 1-1 with 30 minutes gone in the first half when Donna High’s Alfredo Ramirez fired a direct kick into the net from 25-plus yards.
With a little more than 10 minutes left in the opening half, a goal kick by the East goalkeeper went directly to the West’s Erwin Von Nacher of Sharyland High and he promptly sent the ball into the left corner of the net for the West’s second goal. It gave the West a 2-1 edge at intermission.
It became 3-1 for the West after Sharyland Pioneer’s Eros Martinez converted a penalty kick midway through the second half following a tripping call in the penalty area on the East goalkeeper.
In the final minute, Harlingen South’s Jairo Diaz scored into an open net for the East to make it 3-2.
“It’s awesome to coach these games and it’s also a challenge because you have talent from all over the Valley on your team,” said Los Fresnos’ Javier Navarrete, who coached the East boys along with Harlingen High’s Johnny Guillen. “These players are going to give it all they’ve got. They’re fighting for that one more opportunity to play college ball.
“It’s a good thing,” he added. “The college recruiters asked to talk to about six of our players on the East roster, so that’s exciting.”
Coaching the West boys were Alex Lopez of Sharyland Pioneer, Armando Bautista of McAllen Memorial and Zeke Morales of Hidalgo.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess