By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
It’s going to take a lot more than a two-goal deficit for the Lopez Lady Lobos to surrender their lead in the District 32-6A girls soccer race.
The Lady Lobos trailed 2-0 after 15 minutes Saturday against Harlingen South at Brownsville Sports Park. The Lopez girls pulled even before halftime only to fall behind 3-2 just two minutes into the second half.
That’s when the Lady Lobos summoned their collective resolve and rallied to score the match’s next three goals in capturing a 5-3 win against the Lady Hawks.
It was a victory that kept Lopez in sole possession of the district lead.
Lopez leads 32-6A at 8-1 with 23 points. A loss Saturday would have allowed second-place Los Fresnos (7-2, 21 points) to take over as district leader. South (6-3, 18 points) slipped to third place in 32-6A.
The Lady Lobos were coming off Tuesday’s 2-1 setback at Los Fresnos and weren’t too keen on letting that defeat become a trend.
“Yes, we were down, but we all knew we had to step it up if we wanted to stay with the (first-place) ranking that we have,” said Samantha Ruiz, a senior center midfielder who led the Lady Lobos by scoring their first three goals Saturday. “I’m just glad that everyone did her part to help us get the victory.”
The Lady Hawks got off to a strong start as South’s Monica Quintana scored from the right side during the eighth and 15th minutes to provide her team with a 2-0 advantage.
Lady Hawks coach Omar Pedroza didn’t really feel all that comfortable despite his team’s early two-goal advantage.
“This game was just about like every game we play in our district,” Pedroza said. “Everybody’s good and everybody’s tough.
“You know when you play Lopez they’re always going to be ready to give you a tough game,” he added. “It’s just a very tough district. It’s going to be hard to get over this game, but we have to get ready to play Los Fresnos on Tuesday.”
Lopez began its comeback midway through the first half when Ruiz took a corner kick from the right side that was deflected out to the same side of the field. Ruiz chased down the bouncing ball, turned with it and launched a high, arcing shot toward the goal from approximately 30 yards away that caught the inside of the upper left corner of the goal.
That spectacular score was just the beginning for Lopez.
Ruiz converted a penalty kick during the 26th minute after a tripping call on South as the Lady Lobos pulled even at 2.
Lopez seemed to have gained the momentum going into intermission with the score tied, but things changed quickly when South’s Clarissa Rodriguez attacked down the middle and dribbled in close two minutes into the second half. Rodriguez beat the Lopez goalkeeper in a 1-on-1 confrontation to give the Lady Hawks a 3-2 lead.
The Lady Lobos were behind again, but not for long.
Ruiz came up big once again by sending a free kick into the goal on a high line drive from 25-plus yards out to tie the match at 3. Another spectacular goal gave Ruiz a hat trick and further inspired the Lady Lobos to continue battling.
A medium-range goal by Carla Gracia gave Lopez its first lead, 4-3, with 13 minutes to go. The final tally for the Lady Lobos came with just a couple minutes remaining when Gracia sent a pass over to teammate Kiara Garcia on the right side and she headed the ball into the net to make it 5-3.
“Now we can start gaining some confidence because we’ve already got two of the best teams (in Los Fresnos and South) out of our way (in 32-6A’s second round),” Lopez coach Alex Macias said. “Now we can start seeing that a window to the playoffs is there for us. We want to take the district title as well.
“Things are looking good,” he added. “Now we can say that we’re one of the better teams in our district.”
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @HessRgehess.