NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
HIDALGO – Mission High and Donna North were on a collision course for two and a half days at the 12th annual Copa La Frontera.
The two teams met in the group stage on Friday and North put on a clinic for a two-goal win.
In the championship match Mission adjusted, improved and prevailed by a score of 3-1 to take the Copa hardware.
Eagles’ midfielder Aaron Rodriguez said fatigue and an off day contributed to their showing in Friday’s loss.
“The other day we played them, we didn’t play our all,” Rodriguez said. “Today, we came ready to play. It was the championship and we gave it our all. We knew what they had but they didn’t know what we had because we didn’t play (well) yesterday.”
Mission found its swagger in the first half. Despite a scoreless game at the break, the Eagles were on the ball more often.
It was speed, not swagger that scored first.
Donna North’s Rigoberto Escobar headed the ball to himself in open space and ran hard to give himself plenty of net to shoot at. Wearing the coveted No. 10, he made no mistake putting the ball past Leo Cantu.
He gave up the first goal, but Cantu had already made one key save on Escobar from a direct free-kick. When the dust settled the save meant more than the goal.
Just minutes after the Chiefs score, Sebastian Montes dazzled the crowd with a bicycle kick high past the keeper.
With 8:43 to play in the match Montes scored his second to put Mission ahead for good.
“Those goals, they mean a lot,” Rodriguez said. “Soccer without goals isn’t anything, it’s just a game. From the beginning, I believed in my forwards. Everybody on my team believed in our forwards and they did exactly what they needed to do.”
The Chiefs impressed most of the weekend, but the championship had a different feel. Both teams were playing their ninth game in three days and tired legs were a factor.
Speedy Donna North was able to run in open space but less frequently than in group games. Mission’s structure gave North issues. Eagles sweeper Jaime Salazar was constantly in the air, deflecting the Chiefs high passes.
Mission coach Christos Barouhas said that the tournament served an important purpose of settling his roster as district play looms at the end of month.
“During the tournament, I was trying to figure out different positions and adapt different players to different positions,” he said. “I was trying Sebastian in the middle and he helped out a lot, but then I moved him up to see what was going to happen. He responded very well and I think he’s going to stay there from now on.”
Barouhas was happy to see his team improve quickly from its slow start to the season and cap tournament play with a victory over one of the Upper Valley’s top teams.
“This second time around we knew them,” Barouhas said. “I told my team what to do and they did it. We won the game because we played how we can play.”
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