By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Pace Lady Vikings took an important step toward reaching the playoffs by getting past the Porter Cowgirls 3-2 in a District 32-5A girls soccer match Friday at Porter.
The Lady Vikings (8-3, 24 points) built a 3-0 first-half lead on a pair of goals by Jo Ann Sanchez and one by Kryssie Rivera before the Cowgirls (6-5, 18 points) battled back down the stretch with long-distance goals in the closing minutes by Susana Romero and Sheila Dominguez.
The Pace girls have won four games in a row to start the second half of district.
“It looks like this helps us a lot for the playoffs,” Lady Vikings coach Jesus O. Villarreal said. “We’re still waiting on the other district results. Our district is pretty tight right now. We’re just going for as many points as we can get, taking it game by game and seeing what happens at the end.
“It felt good to get out to a 3-0 lead in the first half,” Villarreal added. “Our girls did everything we had talked about doing, and they were ready to play. They showed it in the first half. Unfortunately, we stopped doing what we had been doing in the second half and we relaxed too much. We had an injury and a yellow card, and strategically that put us in bad shape. Fortunately, we got the win and that’s all I care about right now.”
Pace edged Porter 2-1 in the first round of district Feb. 6 at Pace.
“The Pace girls gave it a little more effort than we did in this game, and that was basically it,” Cowgirls coach Abraham Gracia said.
District 32-5A action continues at noon Monday for each team as Pace is at home against Donna North and Porter is at Donna High.