By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
It took a little while, but the Los Fresnos Lady Falcons emerged with an historic win for their school Friday at the Region IV-6A Tournament at Brownsville Sports Park.
After 100 minutes of scoreless action during regulation and overtime, the Lady Falcons prevailed over Corpus Christi Carroll in penalty kicks to move within one victory of reaching next week’s UIL state tournament.
Los Fresnos won the PKs 5-3, and officially, it goes down as a 1-0 victory for the Lady Falcons.
The District 32-6A champion Lady Falcons (27-3) have qualified for the regional tournament four times during the past six years, but before Friday they had never recorded a win at the regional semifinal level of the playoffs.
“I knew I could do it because my teammates were depending on me,” said sophomore forward Rubi Soto, whose PK goal made it 5-3 and clinched the win for the Lady Falcons. “I’m so excited. It feels incredible.”
It’s a rare feat for a Rio Grande Valley girls soccer team to win at the regional tournament. Only McAllen High (2007) and Sharyland High (2012) have done it before.
No Valley girls team has made it to state before. The Lady Falcons will go against San Antonio Reagan to see if they can achieve that honor in the regional final at 1 p.m. Saturday at BSP.
“Once we went to PKs, I knew God was going to take care of us,” Lady Falcons coach Marissa Wood said. “When we meet Him halfway, He meets us halfway.
“This feels amazing,” she added. “I don’t have any other way to describe it.”
Each team had some decent scoring chances during regulation and OT, but nothing found its way into the net.
Once in PKs, Los Fresnos went first and everyone made good on her try. Scoring for the Lady Falcons before Soto were Clarissa “Claire” Castaneda, Gabby X. Mariscal, Anissa Rodriguez and Cristen Lumbreras.
The District 28-6A champion Lady Tigers (17-5-4) had their first PK blocked by Lady Falcons goalkeeper Vanessa Ramirez, and after that they had to try to come from behind the rest of the way. Scoring for Carroll were Daniela Hernandez, Adria Saldivar and Meghan Mandel, but it was not enough to catch Los Fresnos after their earlier miss.
“I was very nervous, but I told myself, ‘I can do this,’” said Ramirez, a senior and four-year starter at guarding the net. “I was going to do it for my team because I love my team and I had faith in myself.”
The Lady Falcons were without sophomore forward Tanya Prazelini, one of their top scorers who is out with an injury.
Through four playoff games, Los Fresnos has not yet allowed a goal.
Veteran Carroll coach Eddie Dale said he was proud of his girls.
“It definitely could have gone either way,” Dillon said. “I thought we created some clear chances that we could have put in, but it just didn’t happen for us.
“I’d like to play them again on another day because I think we could beat them, but I wish Los Fresnos every bit of luck in the world,” Dillon added. “They played as hard as we did, and they deserved to win.”