PHARR — The Valley View Tigers were forced to face a new reality five games into district play. Just one week removed from a dominating 11-0 performance against McAllen Memorial, the Tigers were made aware they’d be without their star striker, Pablo Torre, for the remainder of the year.
Torre, a senior, opted out of his final season to pursue a professional career with North Texas SC, an MLS Next Pro club based in Arlington.
“We spoke to the team after and told them we’re still the Valley View Tigers,” Valley View head coach Gerardo Salazar said. “We still had a strong team. We told them we still believed in them and to just keep going forward.”
Following his departure, the Tigers looked to fill the void left behind by Torre, who accounted for nearly half of the team’s goals during district play last season.
Trying to replace their star striker with one player wasn’t a task for just one player. Instead, the Tigers turned to sophomore Peter Yanez and junior Ever Arredondo.
“The thing we told Ever and Peter is to not try and be another Pablo,” Valley View head coach Gerardo Salazar said. “We told them to be themselves. When Pablo was playing, they used to double team or triple team him. So, the other guys were more free and it was almost always one-on-one for them. Now it’s not like that. They had to touch the ball more and move around.”
The duo combined for 25 goals in district play, with Yanez scoring 13 and Arredondo adding 12, leading the Tigers to an 11-1-2 finish in District 31-5A play to claim the district crown.
Now the Tigers are gearing up for another potential deep postseason run, kicking off with a Region IV-5A bi-district matchup against Brownsville Pace at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
“Winning the district is always the first goal,” Salazar said. “Going to the playoffs, to state and then eventually winning state is always our main goal. Another district championship, yeah, the kids were happy. But that’s not our main goal. Our goal is to try and get a state championship. It’s just one of those steppingstones that we talk about with the kids on the team.”
Despite reeling off victories in eight of their final nine district contests, the Tigers are still adjusting to life without Torre, Salazar said, struggling at times on the pitch.
During their first game following the move Feb. 15, the Tigers narrowly escaped with a 2-1 victory over PSJA Southwest, with Yanez netting the game-winning goal late during the second half.
“When Pablo left, it was a big void we had to fill back there,” Salazar said. “We tried several kids in his position. That’s the thing, when you have a kid used to playing here and then they’re forced to move to a different position, it is tough to get the flow of the game going.”
Yanez has helped ease the transition, scoring seven goals of his 13 goals during the Tigers’ final nine district contests.
Arredondo added five goals during that span, including a hat trick during a 3-1 victory over McAllen High on Feb. 16.
“We knew things were going to change,” Yanez said. “At first, I didn’t like it, but we started getting used to it. We knew it was going to be tough. Since then, we’ve kept winning and winning. We know we can keep winning. Now that Pablo is gone, me and Ever have developed a better connection. We just gotta keep doing that into the playoffs and I think we’ll be good.”
While some have started to question the Tigers’ potential going into the postseason, Valley View is hoping to continue its longstanding tradition of playoff success and prove the doubters wrong.
“This time, we don’t have Pablo,” Yanez said. “We’ve been training really hard to go without him. I think this team, people don’t think we can get far. But I really believe in this team and what we can do. They’re going to see in the playoffs.”