By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
One week into the soccer postseason, the playoff party continues for eight teams from the Brownsville area.
Among them are the boys and girls from Hanna. The others include the Brownsville Veterans Memorial boys, Rivera boys, Pace boys, Porter boys, Lopez girls and Los Fresnos girls.
All of them are playing Thursday in the area round of the playoffs with just about everyone on the road except for the Porter boys, who play host to Laredo Cigarroa at 7 p.m. at Brownsville Sports Park in a Class 5A matchup. The other 5A matchup involving a city team has the Pace boys taking on Corpus Christi Moody at 6 p.m. at Calallen.
Elsewhere in matchups involving Metro-area Class 6A teams, it’s the Rivera boys vs. Del Rio at 5:30 p.m. at Laredo’s Shirley Field, Los Fresnos’ girls vs. Laredo United at Roma’s Ramiro Barrera Middle School, Lopez’s girls vs. McAllen High at 6:30 p.m. at San Benito’s Bobby Morrow Stadium and Brownsville Veterans’ boys vs. La Joya Juarez-Lincoln at Donna’s Bennie LaPrade Stadium.
Hanna’s boys and girls are on the road at separate sites for their 6A matches. The Golden Eagles go against Laredo LBJ at 6 p.m. at La Joya ISD’s Pack Stadium, and the Lady Golden Eagles play McAllen Memorial at 7 p.m. at Boxer Hernandez Stadium on the Memorial campus.
The winners advance to next week’s regional quarterfinal round.
Hanna boys coach Reyes Prado sees his team’s next playoff match as a tough one, but not something the Eagles can’t overcome.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Prado said. “Every match is different, and every playoff game is going to be tougher as you go on. We’re playing a team that was first place in their district over there in Laredo, and we were second place in our district, so it should be a pretty good match.
“We had a tough, physical bi-district match (in a 1-0 win last week against Edinburg Economedes), and we expect that same type of game from everybody,” he added.
The Hanna girls are going against a strong McAllen Memorial team that eliminated them in the bi-district round last year in Brownsville.
“It’s a pretty solid challenge,” Lady Eagles coach Jose Morales said. “They have an arsenal of players and so do we, so it’ll be interesting to say the least.”
Morales said it’s OK with him that the game is being played on the grass field at Boxer Hernandez Stadium.
“Actually, I prefer grass,” he said. “We’re good on (artificial) turf, and I feel we’re better on grass.”
Coming off their 2-0 bi-district upset of Valley View on Saturday, the Pace boys are eager for their next playoff test.
“I see the matchup (with Moody) as another final,” Vikings coach Mario A. Zamora said. “We want to keep the momentum of winning going, and we want to demonstrate it was not a surprise that we won Saturday.”
The Brownsville Veterans boys are going up against a familiar opponent in La Joya Juarez-Lincoln.
“We’ve played Juarez-Lincoln just about every year in scrimmages, non-district games or tournament games, and we’ve always showed up and played very well against them,” Chargers coach Alberto Vasquez said. “They’ve played well and we’ve played well, and we’ve traded off wins. We always look forward to a good challenge, and we know we’ll be going against a good team.
“I think we’re establishing a reputation that any time someone plays us, they’re going to be playing a well-organized team, a team that goes out there and plays good soccer,” Vasquez added. “They’re going to get the best we’ve got.”
Even though their match against Del Rio doesn’t start until late afternoon, the Rivera Raiders are expecting quite warm temperatures in Laredo. It soared to a reported 110 degrees two years ago when the Hanna girls had a playoff game there.
“Yes sir, it’s going to be hot,” Raiders coach Salvador Garcia said. “Oh boy, (maybe not 110) this time, it’s going to be (more like) 96.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.