By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Lopez Lobos coach Amadeo Escandon liked what he saw from his soccer team during Thursday’s 2-0 home-field victory against the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers.
The win halted an uncharacteristic four-game losing streak by the Lobos (8-6, 25 points), who finished the regular season as the third-place team from District 32-6A.
“If we would have lost with the heart that our guys showed tonight, I wouldn’t have cared,” Escandon said. “The attitude, desire to win and heart they showed, that’s what I’ve been looking for the past five games. It showed in this game, and it’s a great way to go into the playoffs.”
The Lobos now are set to face PSJA North, the District 31-6A runner-up, in the bi-district round of the playoffs next week. Brownsville Veterans (7-7, 22 points), the fourth-place 32-6A finisher, now advances to play 31-6A champion Edinburg North in bi-district.
Lopez scored one goal during each half to secure the win.
Sixteen minutes into the opening half, Lopez’s Julio “J.C.” De La Garza took a well-placed corner kick from the right side that was perfectly headed in by teammate Benito Cazares for a 1-0 lead.
Midway through the second half, the Lobos’ Leo Martinez dribbled in from the left side and got past a defender before he also slipped by the goalkeeper, who had come out. Martinez found himself alone with the ball and no opponent to challenge him, so he fired a casual shot into an open goal to make it 2-0.
De La Garza said Thursday’s win provides some needed confidence to his team after going through a disconcerting four-game losing streak.
“It’s very good to get the momentum that this win gives us,” De La Garza said. “We were bad in the last few games, and everything was going down. We had some meetings as a team, and we decided that this is our life, and it wasn’t Lopez soccer that we had been playing.
“We needed to start playing Lopez soccer again, and we did in this game,” he added. “Thank God, we came out with the victory, and now we’re looking to Him to lead us to a victory (in the playoffs) next week.”
When Lopez and Brownsville Veterans played each other Feb. 17 during the first round of district, the Lobos won 2-1 in overtime on the Chargers’ field.