By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
ROMA — After giving up a late first-half goal to the Laredo United South Panthers, the Hanna Golden Eagles went into halftime trailing by one and without momentum.
Still, it was the Eagles who came out of the break with all the energy as they picked up goals from Aldo Gonzalez and Marko Garibay during the first 18 minutes of the second half, lifting Hanna to a 3-2 area-round win over United South Tuesday night in Roma.
“It came down to going back to what we do. We played the ball on the ground, started making better passes and being more aggressive to those 50-50 balls,” Hanna coach Reyes Prado said. “This is a Laredo team that is very well-coached, and they were here for a reason. There are no easy teams. “We just tried to play our style of game and thank God we did, and we were able to come back down 2-1.”
Hanna meets the winner of Harlingen South and McAllen Rowe in the regional quarterfinals.
Gonzalez opened the second half with a pair of opportunities to find the back of the net, missing a shot just over the crossbar at the 38:44 mark of the second half and then on a header yards from the goal that went right into the hands of Laredo United goalkeeper Hector Cruz just 30 seconds later.
He finally scored his goal after nailing a free kick from about 20 yards out at the 36:37 mark to tie the game at 2.
“That score felt really good because that’s the goal we were looking for after being down by one,” Gonzalez said. “Thank God we’re back in the third round. It’s an every match thing, going out and giving everything on every play, and that’s going to keep on going until we’re out.”
Garibay put in the winning goal on a shot from about 10 yards out with an assist from Kevin Ochoa, who scored during the first half off an assist from Garibay.
That go-ahead score came with 22:13 left, leaving Hanna to play defense the remainder of the game.
United South threatened on more than one occasion near the Hanna goal but was unable to capitalize.
“Our team defense has been tremendous all year long,” Prado said. “Our defenders have been playing really well. We’re just proud of them, and thank God we were able to come out of this one.”
Hanna opened the game equally as aggressive as it did during the second half, with Ochoa scoring at the 29:30 mark of the first half. But the Eagles gave the goal right back less than two minutes later as the Panthers’ Everardo Pena got off a shot in traffic to tie the game at 1.
The Panthers took their only lead at 2-1 with 2:02 left in the first half on a goal from Justin Espinoza, but that was it.
MISSING A CAPTAIN
Hanna moved on to the regional quarterfinals and did so without senior captain Miguel Payan, who watched and shouted instructions from the sidelines after being issued a red card during Hanna’s 3-0 bi-district win over Edinburg High.
Prado said he and the Eagles were determined to not let Payan’s final season end with him on the sidelines.
“We talked before the game about giving (Payan) a second chance because he’s a senior,” the Hanna coach said. “He’s one of our captains. We said we were going to come out and do this for Hanna, for him and for each other.”