NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
LA JOYA — After 40 minutes, four goals were split evenly between Mission High and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln. The top two boys teams in District 30-6A seemed to be headed for a tight finish. However, with 10 minutes remaining, the Huskies crowd was singing praises and chanting for uno mas gol in the 5-2 game on Friday at La Joya ISD Stadium.
Juarez-Lincoln (8-1) forward Gerardo Reyes left his fingerprints all over the match, scoring once in the first half on a penalty kick, then twice in the second half to secure the win.
“Our coach always tells us to stay mentally strong,” Reyes said. “We had that lead 2-0, and then they tied us. The good thing is we didn’t go down as a team. We stayed strong and continued playing.”
Despite losing 3-0 to the Eagles (6-3) on Feb. 6, Huskies coach Victor Ramos was convinced his team was stronger once it worked through its mistakes.
Halftime on Friday wasn’t a time of adjustment; more like a time of refocusing and staying on course.
“We were playing well. We made some mistakes,” Ramos said. “We just needed to clean up a little bit and continue playing the way we were. We knew that we had control of the game. We were faster and stronger. It was just a matter of time.”
Leonardo Pruneda untied Friday’s score following a hard penalty that knocked Manuel Castrejón out of the game.
“At first, I felt nervous, but when I saw the ball touch the net, I felt relief,” Pruneda, a lanky senior defender, said.
The goal was like a trampoline for Juarez-Lincoln, which continued to feed Reyes the ball. He scored his team’s fourth goal with 18:50 remaining. His hat-trick tally came on a powerful individual effort that ended with him falling on his back as the ball careened off the post and in.
“Every year, my team is who always makes it easy for me to score goals,” Reyes said. “I’m happy this is my team.”
The win may have come at a cost to the Huskies. Standout midfielder Castrejón suffered an injury on the play inside of the box that resulted in the go-ahead goal. He spent a while on the turf before having to be helped off the field with an apparent left leg injury.
Castrejon was the focus of coaches and training staff once the final whistle blew.
“Every single player is important in the team,” Ramos said. “He’s going to the hospital right now just to make sure everything is OK. We’re not going to take anything for granted. Hopefully, everything is fine.”
The entire game was physical and featured heavy tackling, which was reflected in the teams receiving two yellow cards apiece. Both sides were also tagged with red cards after pushing and shoving in the late moments.
“The problem is when you allow the game to play like that, with this kind of referees that are not ready for this kind of game, that’s what happens,” Ramos said.
Juarez-Lincoln scored its first goal on the Reyes penalty kick 11:15 into the action. Castrejón drew the foul with a hard run and cutback that caused Mission’s Nicolas Diaz to take him down.
Before the clock operators even realized play had started back up, the ball was in the net again. This time, Reyes was feeding Castrejón on a cross-field pass that resulted in an easy tap-in.
Even in a four-goal first half, the story of the final 20 minutes before halftime belonged to Eagles keeper Leo Cantu.
Cantu made a sprawling save on a Reyes free kick and two saves on Johan Arevalo to keep his team from falling behind 3-0.
Mission forward Allan Palafox netted two goals in quick succession. First, he deposited a penalty kick that was awarded because of an inadvertent handball in the box.
Palafox then received a pass from Diaz that he turned into a run past everyone, including the goalkeeper, before putting the ball in the empty net.