By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Los Fresnos girls played San Antonio O’Connor on fairly even terms Friday during the Region IV-6A Tournament semifinals, and it was just a couple of plays by the Lady Panthers that made the difference in their 2-0 soccer victory over the Lady Falcons.
The win at Brownsville Sports Park advanced O’Connor to Saturday’s 11 a.m. regional final against San Antonio MacArthur, a 1-0 victor against Del Rio earlier in the day.
One goal during each half lifted the District 26-6A runner-up Lady Panthers (17-5-3) to victory against the District 32-6A second-place Lady Falcons (24-7-1), who were trying to get back to the regional final for the second straight year.
“Overall, I was happy with the performance of our girls today,” Lady Falcons coach Patricia K. Hernandez said. “As a coach, I couldn’t have asked for anything more because they fought their hearts out.
“Regardless of the outcome of the game, like I told the girls, I’m excited for next season (with a majority of our players coming back),” Hernandez added. “We’ll take a week off and then start it all over again for next year (with our offseason program).”
The Lady Panthers jumped out to a 1-0 lead midway through the first half when Baye Polansky came attacking out of the midfield on a breakaway to create a 1-on-1 situation with the Los Fresnos goalkeeper. Polanasky, a sophomore midfielder, came through with a strong shot into the net from about 18 yards out to put her team ahead for good.
It remained 1-0 until just under five minutes to play when the ball was centered from the right side and O’Connor’s Alexia Maldonado, a senior forward, nudged it in from close range to make the score 2-0.
“It feels fantastic to get this win,” Lady Panthers coach Scott Stone said. “Los Fresnos gave us a great game. They were ready to play. They’re well-coached and they gave us everything they could.
“We worked our tails off to get the win,” he added. “It just feels good to make it back to the regional tournament.”
O’Connor qualified for the regional tournament this season for the first time in 17 years, Stone said.
“It’s been such a long time since we were here at this level of the playoffs,” Stone said. “Now we’re just very excited to be playing Saturday.”