McALLEN — Going into Tuesday night’s key District 31-5A battle, McAllen High’s Briana Claudio had scored in every game she had played against McAllen Rowe during her varsity soccer career.
Except the last one.
Claudio suffered a toe injury that sent her to the sidelines a little more than seven minutes into that game and Rowe won, 2-1, in PKs.
She got back on track Tuesday, and it may have been the biggest goal she scored against the city rival Warriors.
Claudio scored a beautiful goal, set up by freshman teammate Julianna Millin and the Bulldogs claimed a 3-2 victory over the visiting Warriors at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium. All three McHi goals were run like they were drawn on a playbook, taking the ball downfield with crisp passes and a final cross before the shot and score.
The win gives McHi a 6-1-1 record and 19 points, training McAllen Memorial, which beat PSJA Memorial 9-0 on Tuesday. The Mustangs (7-1-0) have 21 points and with Sharyland High’s victory over Valley View, the Rattlers (6-2-0) also have 18 points and are in third. Rowe is now 5-2-1 and in fourth with 17 points.
Claudio’s goal came after Rowe’s Ayloni Garcia had given the Warriors a 2-1 lead with a one-touch shot. Minutes later, however, she was red-carded and Rowe played the remainder of the match with 10 players.
“This was amazing. I wanted to score the last goal to win. I just remember Jules (Millin) had the ball and I was running and I was wide open. She split the defenders, I took a touch, the goalie came out and I took a shot to the left corner and it went in.
“We wanted to come out on top and that’s what we did.”
Claudio said she missed a week following the toe injury and it still hurt somewhat Tuesday.
“It feels better after that goal,” she said.
McHi took advantage of the extra player, scoring twice during an eight-minute span. Savannah Ruiz scored the tying goal with 12:09 remaining and Claudio’s goal came minutes later.
“We had talked about it at halftime, about crossing the ball and following the runs in,” Ruiz said. “I knew I had to be there and tapped it in.”
Freshman Julianna Millin scored McHi’s first goal for a 1-0 advantage. It was her team-leading 15th district goal of the season. Camila Gil scored later on a PK for a 1-1 tie.
“We knew we had to score. We didn’t want to go into penalty kicks again,” Claudio said.
Bulldogs coach Pat Arney wasn’t just happy with the win or the way his team played offensively.
“I loved the teamwork that we had. Rowe played a heck of a game. This was a fun game to coach,” Arney said. “The red card was a difference-maker, but the goals that we scored were gorgeous. There were three or four passes all the way up the field.”
Claudio had two other grand opportunities in the first half but Rowe goalkeeper Debrina Garcia made a magnificent save on one and Claudio hit the crossbar on the other.
“I thought it was gonna be one of those types of games,” Arney said. “She’s such a pivotal player for us. She pops up in the right place at the right time. This is where we want to be. Patient on the ball, move the ball and get lots of touches. They did a great job doing what we asked them to do.”