By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
RAYMONDVILLE — It was an all-too-soon end to the state soccer playoffs for the Pace Lady Vikings.
A 3-2 overtime loss to the Flour Bluff Lady Hornets at Raymondville‘s Burnett Stadium on Monday night left the Pace girls short of achieving their goal of reaching the Region IV-5A Tournament this season for the first time.
Instead, the Lady Vikings (23-9-3) concluded their season in the second round of the postseason, having captured back-to-back District 32-5A championships in 2018-19.
“I’m going home with the idea that our girls gave everything they had,” Lady Vikings coach Jesus O. Villarreal said. “Like we expected it to be, it was an even game that could have gone either way.
“We had our chances (to score) and we just couldn’t make them,” Villarreal added. “We didn’t get dominated, and I do want to give some credit to Flour Bluff because they have a very well-structured team and their formation is very well-defined. We knew what to expect and what they were capable of. I’m calm because it was a very even game.”
District 29-5A runner-up Flour Bluff advances to the third round of the Class 5A playoffs later this week and is expected to play Victoria East.
Pace defeated Flour Bluff 4-1 in the area round of the playoffs one season ago, also at Raymondville, so the Lady Hornets were pretty happy.
“This win feels good, especially for the girls, who have put in a lot of effort,” Flour Bluff coach Mario Lopez said. “Honestly, both teams played hard and it was back and forth.
“Brownsville Pace and Coach Villarreal really have a good thing going over the last couple of years, and you could really tell it by the way their team played tonight,” Lopez added. “It feels good to come out on top, and that’s really all I can say.”
The Lady Hornets broke out early to take a 1-0 lead during the fourth minute of the match as Meena Luis scored from close range near the right post. Pace’s Arianna Garcia evened the match at 1 during the 23rd minute on a long-range goal that caught the right corner of the net.
During the 28th minute, Pace’s Paloma Zamora sent a shot toward the goal from the left side that found the mark for a 2-1 lead after the ball hit the right post and bounced in.
The Lady Vikings’ took a 2-1 advantage into intermission.
The Lady Hornets scored their second goal soon after the beginning of the second half. During the 44th minute, Flour Bluff’s Olivia Cerna won a 1-on-1 matchup with the Pace goalkeeper to make it 2-2.
The game-winning goal was scored by the Lady Hornets five minutes into the first half of overtime, which was the 85th minute. Flour Bluff’s Catherine Cutbirth lined up for a free kick in the middle of the field from 30-plus yards away. She placed the ball perfectly as her kick came in high and cleared the outstretched arms of the Lady Vikings goalkeeper before settling into back of the net.
Fifteen more minutes of OT was played, but neither team managed to score again.
An injury to a Pace player, who appeared to hurt her back in a collision with a Flour Bluff player, stopped the match for approximately 45 minutes with 19:13 remaining in regulation. The player was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Harlingen.
Pace athletic coordinator Danny Pardo said the girl appeared to be in stable condition and was transported to the hospital for precautionary reasons.