By STEFAN MODRICH, Staff Writer
Javier Ballesteros scored two goals in less than one minute during the second half of Brownsville Veterans Memorial’s District 32-5A contest against Brownsville Lopez on Tuesday night, clinching the District 32-5A crown with a 2-0 victory.
The Chargers improved to 12-1 in 32-5A play with the win. The Lobos dropped to 8-5 in district.
It was the sixth clean sheet for Brownsville Veterans goalkeeper Alek Gomez in district play. The Chargers have allowed nine goals and scored 38 in 13 district games.
Gomez, Brownsville Veterans’ three defenders and two others had no varsity experience prior to the start of the 2019-20 season.
“That’s what we try and build off of,” Brownsville Veterans coach Albert Vasquez said. “We start off in the back and make sure we’re solid there, and we create from there. … For us to maintain the same style and same efficiency in the back … I’m real proud of our defensive group.”
Ballesteros, a sophomore, netted the first Brownsville Veterans goal at the 28-minute mark of the second half when his free kick was deflected by a Lopez player to break through the Lobos’ wall.
Not more than 30 seconds later, facilitated by a tic-tac-toe string of passes from Albert Maradiaga to Ballesteros, the Chargers doubled the lead when Ballesteros found space in the box and drove a dagger into the back of the net past the Lopez goalkeeper.
“I want to congratulate our whole team for the good game we played,” Ballesteros said. “And thank (Maridiaga) for the good passes. He’s always looking out for the passes on the sides, and he gave me the opportunity to score and win the game.”
Vasquez noted that the second goal was similar to the first goal his team scored in a game against Porter, and that his players are aggressive and adept at finding each other in space.
“We pretty much practice those every day,” Maradiaga said. “We were finally able to do it during the game, and it worked out. … We work every day to get better, and we’re not done yet.”
Brownsville Veterans had several chances thwarted by the Lobos’ goalie during the first half, and Cesar Cepeda had a goal disallowed with eight minutes remaining in the period when the referee ruled that Cepeda pushed off of his defender.
Just three minutes later, Mark Boswell found the crossbar on a line drive from close range.
Lopez’s best scoring chance came in the first 10 minutes of the second half, the first stretch of the contest during which the Lobos sustained an attack.
After Lopez’s Daniel Cruz took free kick from 15 yards out to the right of the goal, the Lobos failed to take advantage of a golden opportunity to take the lead when a header in the box went right of the goal.
The game began to get chippy as it began to get out of reach for the Lobos, and Ballesteros drew a hard foul while sliding out of bounds and was helped off the field. Vasquez said he did not suffer a serious injury on the play.
On a later exchange, Cruz was issued a yellow card.
“He’s OK, the players are good, we’re all healthy,” Vasquez said. “We’ve got one more game, and we’re trying to stay healthy and make a good run in the playoffs.”
Ballesteros said it was important for he and his teammates to remain composed and be complacent with a lead, even late in the second half.
“We have to stay under control,” Ballesteros said. “We have (big) games like this, like against Valley View, where we have to keep our mindset in the game and not focus on the crowd.”
Brownsville Veterans plays host to Edcouch Elsa at 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday to conclude its regular season.
Lopez also is playoff-bound, and the Lobos are set to wrap up their district slate at 7:30 p.m. next Tuesday at Mercedes.