By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
ELSA — As members of this season’s revised District 32-5A, the Porter Cowgirls are getting used to playing soccer against new conference opponents such as Edcouch-Elsa.
The Cowgirls played a district game Friday at E-E for the first time in recent memory and came away on the short end of a 2-1 loss after penalty kicks at Benny Layton Sr. Memorial Stadium.
“E-E is a good team,” Cowgirls coach Abraham Gracia said. “Our girls played a good game, but the thing is we’re down to 13 players and we’re not really able to substitute, except for maybe one player. We lost one of our top forwards to an ACL (injury) last week, and we’re hoping to pick up some more girls after basketball. That’s the hard part.
“We still get one point (in the standings for going to penalty kicks), so that’s not so bad,” Gracia added. “We just need to practice our penalty kicks.”
Porter (1-1 district) led 1-0 at halftime, thanks to Priscila Cortinas’ tally seven minutes before halftime. She fired a shot from about 15 yards out on the right side that found the mark.
E-E (2-0) evened the score at 1 seven minutes into the second half when Madeline Acevedo dribbled in from the left side and sent a shot into the goal, also from about 15 yards away.
After 80 minutes of regulation and a tie score, as per 32-5A rules this season, the match went to penalties. It took penalty attempts by 12 players before a winner was decided.
E-E went first, and making penalty goals for the Lady Yellowjackets were Acevedo, Leslie Alvardo and C.C. Marin. Converting their penalty kicks for the Cowgirls were Cortinas and Shaila Dominguez.
Porter had a chance to win with the score in penalties tied at 2, but its second-to-last player to attempt a shot had her try blocked. Marin then converted her try to put E-E ahead 3-2 in penalties before the last player for Porter kicked her attempt wide left, ending the game and giving the victory to the Lady Yellowjackets.
“Yes, this puts us at 2-0 (in district), but nothing is settled yet,” E-E coach Juan Romero said. “It’s still very early in the season. It’s a good, positive booster (for our confidence), but there’s still a long way to go in the season, even though we played against a very good team (and won). Let’s just see what happens.”
E-E was coming off a 2-0 victory over PSJA High in its 32-5A opener Tuesday, and Porter triumphed over Donna North 2-1 in its district opener the same night.”