NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
McALLEN — On day two of Valley soccer, McAllen Memorial’s girls started fast but ran out of petroleum in the second half, falling 2-1 to the Los Fresnos Falcons on Friday in the McAllen ISD Showcase.
The two powerhouse programs have the usual high expectations but are using this early part of the schedule to get their young rosters up to speed for the varsity level.
The Mustangs were strong on the ball out of the gate and didn’t allow the Falcons much possession.
Early scoring chances came often for the Mustangs, who were playing on their home field. The trend looked on track to continue the whole match, especially factoring in the 5-0 loss Los Fresnos suffered to McAllen High on Thursday.
The constant attack and time on the ball turned into production when Memorial sophomore Mia Perez connected on a centering pass that she buried past goalie Emma Ramirez.
“We like to play possession soccer. There’s a lot of one-touch to that,” Memorial coach Matthew Kaiser said. “There’s a lot of movement off the ball. The idea is that we’re going to create some good chances to score. The difficulty with that is you have to take advantage.”
Capitalizing turned from a difficulty to a major issue for the Mustangs, who let a flurry of chances go by the wayside.
Perez said the game could have been different if her team converted to create separation.
“We had a lot of opportunities to score in the first half, and I think we didn’t realize how important those opportunities were,” Perez said. “When (the chances) came early, we kind of made excuses like, ‘It’s going to come more in the second half. We need to be patient.’ Instead, we should have just executed at first. If we would have taken those shots and made them, it would have been harder on Los Fresnos to come back. It would have taken the weight off of us and put it on them to capitalize.”
Eventually, the opportunities started to dry up. As the first half continued, the game began to open up, and sloppy play was common for both sides.
A seemingly harmless foul just past midfield gave Falcons senior defender Alexa Gutierrez a chance to line up a free kick.
Her howler of a kick had the power and trajectory to stun Memorial goalkeeper Victoria Tanguma. The attempt was a rare shot on goal for the Falcons in the first half but was the spark they needed to draw even and steal the momentum going into halftime.
Los Fresnos coach Patricia Hernandez knew that even though her team was outplayed through one half, the score line gave the Falcons new life.
“We knew at that point it was 0-0,” Hernandez said. “We had to come back, and we could not afford any missed opportunities. Every chance we had, we made sure to send it up top.”
The visitors earned a jolt from the improbable goal and carried it for the rest of the match.
“We knew that we had to come twice as strong as they did,” Hernandez said. “We had to take every single opportunity given to us, and we did. We fought for each and every ball. We fought for every 50-50 ball, persistence from the girls.”
The second half was played more evenly, with Los Fresnos settling in to earn most of the grade A scoring opportunities.
Memorial employed a bend-but-don’t-break defense that allowed the Falcons more time on the ball but hoped to keep the high-quality chances to a minimum. The strategy worked to an extent, but the onslaught of many more crisp passes by Los Fresnos made a goal feel imminent.
The Falcons nearly took the lead back on a ball that found its way to a lonely Sam Sanchez just to the right of the goalpost, but her shot sailed high to the chagrin of the traveling fans.
Sanchez followed immediately with a long run down the sideline but was denied by a defender who got in the way of the shot.
The pressure cooker finally boiled over when a corner kick from Allison Spier found the head of Cassy Lozano to give the Falcons the game-winning tally.
Memorial’s Andrea Santana nearly tied the game not long after Los Fresnos took the lead, but her well-placed shot after a turn was bested by the keeper, who made a diving save.