ROY HESS | Staff Writer
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers and Hanna Golden Eagles are the city’s remaining teams still alive in the UIL soccer playoffs as the fourth round begins Friday with regional tournament competition.
The Region IV-6A Tournament returns to Brownsville Sports Park as Hanna (15-7-3) takes on San Antonio Reagan (15-8-2) at 4 p.m. Friday in the final match of a four-game boys and girls regional semifinal lineup.
Friday’s first two games at BSP involve girls teams as La Joya Juarez-Lincoln (22-1) plays Lake Travis (21-4) at 10 a.m. and Harlingen South (22-3) goes against Austin Westlake (20-1) at noon.
Friday’s other boys semifinal has San Antonio Lee (24-2-1) playing Laredo Alexander (23-7-7) at 2 p.m.
The boys and girls semifinal winners play Saturday for the regional championship and a trip to Georgetown for next week’s UIL state tournament.
“I would like to invite the people of Brownsville to come out and support our Hanna team,” said Kevin Ochoa, a senior forward for the Eagles. “This is our last chance (as seniors) to get as far as we can. We’ve been training so hard to get beyond regionals. That’s our goal.”
Brownsville Veterans is returning to the Regional IV-5A Tournament at Corpus Christi’s Cabaniss Field for the third straight year.
The Chargers (23-3-1) go against Kerrville Tivy (22-2-1) at 2 p.m. Friday in the boys regional semifinals at Cabaniss Field. The other boys semifinal Friday matches Valley View (16-13) against San Antonio Southwest (18-7-1) at noon.
Friday’s girls regional semifinals at Cabaniss have Alamo Heights (23-2-2) playing Victoria East (18-6-3) at 4:30 p.m. and Dripping Springs (19-4-3) going against Gregory-Portland (19-2-4) at 6:30 p.m.
The semifinal winners play Saturday for the regional championship and a trip to state.
“I would say we’ve done good in the playoffs so far, but I wouldn’t say we’ve done excellent because we haven’t,” said Frank Moreno II, a senior outside defender for the Chargers. “I feel that we can still do more than what we’ve done.”
The Region IV-4A Tournament returns to McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium on Friday and Saturday. The only Rio Grande Valley team playing in it this year is Progreso. The Red Ants (13-3-5) play Taylor (18-5-3) in the regional semifinals at 2 p.m. Friday in McAllen. The winner goes against Gonzales or Canyon Lake on Saturday to determine the Region IV-4A state qualifier.
Progreso is trying to make it to state a fourth straight year, which would be a first for a Valley team.
The four girls teams playing in the McAllen regional tournament are Liberty Hill, Beeville Jones, Wimberly and Pleasanton.
FAMILIAR FOE
Hanna is going against an opponent in Reagan that it faced Jan. 10 during the 37th annual Brownsville ISD Tournament. Reagan, which went to state in 6A last year, edged the Eagles 2-1 in penalty kicks in that Jan. 10 tournament game.
“It was the preseason, and we tied with them (1-1) here at Hanna (before going to penalties),” Eagles coach Reyes Prado said. “Reagan has a very good team, and I think we should match up pretty evenly with them. Hopefully, we can come out on top.
“It’s great to be playing Reagan anywhere, really, but hopefully playing them down here (at BSP) our home crowd will go support these players,” Prado added. “We hope we can give the people a good show. We had good support against Harlingen South (at BSP for the regional quarterfinals last Friday) and we’re very thankful for that.
“Our supporters show up even when it’s raining, and that’s great. Now we’re getting more people coming out. Bottom line, I think they’re supporting BISD. We’re proud to be representing not only Hanna, but BISD, too.”
BRAND NEW FOE
Conversely, Brownsville Veterans is going against an opponent it hasn’t played before in Kerrville Tivy on Friday in Corpus Christi. The past two years, the Chargers have beaten Austin High (4-0 and 3-0) in the regional semifinals at Cabaniss.
“All I’ve heard is that Tivy is a very solid team,” Chargers coach Alberto Vasquez said. “They have some speed, they have some height and they play simple, effective soccer. They’re supposed to be well-coached, so we’ve got to be ready.”
Added Moises Navarro, the Chargers’ senior goalkeeper, “We’ve been at regionals two times already and I think this is our year.”