By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Lopez Lobos make their fourth appearance at the UIL state soccer tournament Friday in Georgetown hoping it will lead to a second state championship for their school.
German Vera, a senior defensive midfielder and team captain, said the Lobos are focused on their ultimate goal.
“Talent-wise, everybody (at state) has talent,” he said. “But hard work beats talent, so that’s why I think we should just go up there and give it our all.
“It’s going to be really hard and really competitive, but I trust my teammates and I know we’re going to give it everything we’ve got because we’ve been wanting for this forever,” Vera added. “We said in 2014 (when we lost at state and fell short of the title) that we would be back, and here we are.”
The Lobos advanced to Georgetown the first time in 2004 and captured the Class 4A championship, which was the first of the Rio Grande Valley’s five UIL state titles in soccer. The others were by Porter in 2006, Hidalgo in 2009, Sharyland High in 2012 and Rivera in 2015.
Lopez made it back to state in 2009 and finished as the Class 5A runner-up. The Lobos returned in 2014 and were eliminated in the 5A state semifinals.
Now the Lobos are playing in the Class 6A division at the four-day state tournament that runs through Saturday at Georgetown ISD’s Birkelbach Field.
Lopez (21-2-1) goes against Austin Lake Travis (24-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the 6A state semifinals. A victory would send the Lobos to the 6A state title match at 6:30 p.m. Saturday against Coppell (22-0-3) or Katy Cinco Ranch (18-2-5).
The District 32-6A champion Lobos prevailed in two of their most challenging games of the season last weekend at the Region IV-6A Tournament at Brownsville Sports Park. They fell behind 2-1 against Schertz Clemens before rallying to win 3-2 in the regional semifinals. Against San Antonio Reagan in the Region IV-6A final, Lopez emerged victorious 1-0 from a closely contested match thanks to a goal with just 3 1/2 minutes left in regulation.
Lopez coach Amadeo Escandon expects Lake Travis to be much like the Lobos’ last two opponents.
“Lake Travis is from the same area (of Central Texas) as Reagan and Schertz Clemens, so we do kind of anticipate a matchup like the ones we had against the other two,” Escandon said. “We expect the players from Lake Travis to be tall and physical. Hopefully we can go out there and do our style of play and make the opponent adjust to us.
“Our guys have responded (to adversity in the playoffs) the way we’ve wanted them to, which is they’ve kept their composure and they’ve kept on fighting,” he added. “They give it everything they have. It’s a team that refuses to lose.”
Allan Ramos is a senior midfielder on the wing who was a member of the squad the last time Lopez played at state, He is grateful the Lobos are getting another chance at a state title.
“(Coming home with a state championship) would be the best thing in my life,” Ramos said. “It would be something incredible. I think winning a championship would be the best thing a soccer player could ever experience. I really hope we can do it.”
Lopez is now one of the few, if not only, teams in Texas to play in all three divisions of the state soccer tournament.
As the Lobos prepared to travel to Georgetown Thursday and make their fourth appearance at state, Escandon said that more than anything he feels fortunate to have the soccer players and assistant coaches he’s had in his program, particularly this year.
“This is a special team to me because I’ve known these seniors and some of the other players since they were little kids,” Escandon said. “Some of them played on the same (youth league) teams with my kids, and now here we are going to state.
“I’m just thankful and very appreciative of what we have here at Lopez,” he added. “I think I’m one of the most blessed coaches in the state. God has been very good to me, and I’d just like to vocalize that so it can be known.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess