By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
BROWNSVILLE — The Harlingen South Hawks remain perfect after defeating the Brownsville Rivera Raiders 2-0 on Monday.
Harlingen South rode a tenacious defense to hold off the relentless Raiders and pick up the shutout win. Sophomore goalkeeper Ricardo Montoya stepped up to help his team get a victory in the deep District 32-6A.
“Rivera did an awesome job, they came out and played hard. But at the same time, our players did, too,” Hawks assistant varsity coach Jose Galvan said. “(Our players) knew they had to win if they wanted to stay up top, and they did. It was a very tough game, but I’m so proud of our boys. Our keeper had a lot of saves. He’s only a sophomore so he’s barely learning. Our main keeper was injured so he can’t play right now, so (Montoya) stepped up to the plate and he got us a win against Los Fresnos and now a win tonight.”
The Hawks held a 1-0 lead at halftime behind an early goal from Leo Torres. Harlingen South was aggressive with its possessions in the first half after cleaning up some shaky passing at the start of the contest.
South’s defense gave the Raiders fits for most of the first half. The Hawks were speedy and physical to stop Rivera’s offense as the Raiders tried to set up an attack and find the net. Late in the first half, Rivera attacked more consistently and got some good looks. Marco Diaz and Cesar Garza sent strong kicks to the net, but Montoya came up with saves. Diaz sent a shot off the right post midway through the half.
Harlingen South defenders Joaquin Ovalle, Adrian Salazar and Omar Lerma were particularly disruptive, which paid dividends during the second half. The trailing Raiders were ferocious in their attack throughout the final frame, but the Hawks’ defense was a bit better. The trio of defenders were solid, and when Rivera got through Montoya came up with diving saves and sure hands to keep the Raiders off the board.
“What stood out was defense. We have a mindset of defense wins games and wins championships,” Galvan said. “Rivera was just attacking in the first 15 minutes, then after the goal they came down a little and then started attacking again. The boys, especially the back four — Adrian, Joaquin, Omar — they did an outstanding job.”
Rivera’s defense, led by J.D. Ruiz and Jose Ramos, was solid to keep Harlingen South from getting many scoring opportunities in the second half. Goalkeeper Danny Esquivel made diving stops to keep his team in the game.
The Raiders had chances to break the shutout, but their offense didn’t seem to be on the same page. Rivera had a plethora of free kick chances as the aggressive Harlingen South defense drew whistles, but kicks wide or players not connecting on passes resulted in groans on the field and in the stands rather than goals.
Rivera coach Salvador Garcia said the team’s chemistry hasn’t developed yet, which is making it hard for the Raiders to capitalize on their stretches of good play.
“(The Hawks) were super fast, and we wanted to play at the same speed but there’s no way,” Garcia said. “We have to be smarter than that and play our style of game, which we did for segments. We have to be more consistent, set up our tempo and play to our advantage. We’ve been playing this way where we don’t play that bad, but we don’t get the result we need. We probably had more possession, we probably had more chances, but it doesn’t make a difference. In the end, whoever puts the ball in is going to win.”
South forward Isaac Garza found the net during the final five minutes of action. He and the Hawks outpaced the Raiders, using their speed and stamina to push the tempo and stay a step ahead. Torres, Salazar, Ovalle and Montoya were key performers in the win, which improved the Hawks to 15-0, 4-0 in District 32-6A.