By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
The idea behind participating in a tournament on the first weekend of the UIL soccer season is for teams to play as many games as possible.
Winning is nice as well.
The Lopez Lady Lobos got to gain experience and add three victories to their record Friday during the second day of the Brownsville ISD Girls Soccer Tournament.
The three-day, 24-team event is being played at six sites in Brownsville. The sites include Brownsville Veterans Memorial, Hanna, Pace, Rivera, Sams Memorial Stadium and Brownsville Sports Park.
After Friday, six teams were still alive in the tournament.
Today marks the final day of action. There will be a three-team Gold Group competition with 30-minute halves scheduled at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Brownsville Veterans to determine first, second and third place. The teams involved are Hanna, PSJA North and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln.
A three-team Silver Group competition with 20-minute halves is scheduled at 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. at Pace to determine fourth, fifth and sixth place. The teams involved are Rivera, Pace and PSJA High.
Lopez ended its tournament activity on Friday after going 3-0 at Hanna.
The Lady Lady Lobos defeated Port Isabel 6-0, La Joya High 3-0 and Progreso 2-0 with a squad of mostly junior varsity players.
The Lopez girls didn’t do well enough to qualify for today’s competition, but Lady Lobos coach Alex Macias was upbeat about his team’s prospects after Friday’s showing. Macias is beginning his 10th year coaching the Lopez girls.
“I see that the girls’ team chemistry is coming together,” he said. “These are the first games (of the season for us) in this tournament, and it looks like they’re coming together.
“I think we’re going to be contenders (in District 32-5A),” Macias added. “I think we’ll be up to the challenge.”
Top scorers for the Lady Lobos so far are Myrka Garcia, Adamaris Rangel and Zayra Esquivel.
The Lady Lobos tallied four goals Thursday and 10 Friday, so they’re feeling good about their scoring potential.
“This tournament gives us more experience,” Macias said. “Last year I had five freshmen. They still did really well (one season ago), but I can see that they’re coming out (and doing better) now. I see that the more games they play, the better they’re becoming. These games are really helping us develop our structure (on the field).”
This weekend marks the first of three tournaments for the Lady Lobos. They’ll be at the Drippings Springs Tournament next weekend and at the PSJA Tournament the weekend after that.
“I know the competition is going to be real tough (during the coming weeks),” Macias said. “We’re just trying to see how we fit in (competitively with the other teams).”
(Courtesy photos by Roberto Garcia)