NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
McALLEN — Don’t call it a rebuild. The McAllen High Bulldogs foundation was already strong.
McHi cruised to a 9-0 win over La Joya Palmview at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium to improve its record to 11-0 and push its district winning streak to 37 in a row.
After winning The Monitor All-Area Coach of the Year honors last season, Bulldogs coach Pat Arney called the 2017 squad one of the best McHi teams in program history. The 2018 team has shown they aren’t far behind.
Junior Zoe Flores said that the graduation of 65-goal scorer Anna Hover has actually made the group play better as a unit.
“I think we really have improved a lot as a team, and we haven’t just depended on one player. We all are working as a team,” Flores said. “The flow with the ball is a lot better. The communication — everything is just better this year.”
On Tuesday, Flores provided the early offense for the purple and gold, scoring just 23 seconds into the game. Flores added another goal, on a similar flick over the keeper’s head, with 24:28 to play to jump McHi to a hasty 2-0 lead.
“Putting teams down early is one of the most important things in soccer,” Flores said. “Working as a team early and getting those goals early just racks up the points faster and just helps us all as a team.”
This year’s version of the team has proven that scoring can come from various sources. One of those sources has been midfielder Westyn Henderson. After Flores’s second strike, Henderson made her second long dribble into Lobos territory count.
Following some in-and-out weaves against a Palmview defender, Henderson made a final cutback and roped a laser into the top-left portion of the goal, freezing the keeper.
The midfielder usually sits in a relatively defensive position, but Henderson said being able to play as a dual threat is when she thrives.
“You’re just more of an asset to the team when you’re able to play offensively and defensively,” Henderson said. “Specifically for our team, we like to work out of the back, and that’s how we create most of our offense. It’s good to have players that can get back.”
With 10:19 to play in the half, Mireya Ramirez scored her first of the night. She went on to score two second-half goals for her second hat trick of the season.
The sophomore started the season at the JV level, where she scored 42 goals. When an injury opened an opportunity for her to join the varsity roster, she seized the chance and has continued her scoring touch.
She had a taste of varsity competition a season ago, but with 14 goals in half a district season, she might be here to stay.
“It’s really exciting, getting this feeling,” Ramirez said. “It just depends how hard we work. It’s all about wanting to be the best. Thanks to my team, I get to score all these goals. It’s unbelievable. I love it.”
Sofia Soto and Chloe Fallek rounded out the scoring in the second half to match the Bulldogs’ most one-sided win of the district year.
Palmview’s two best chances came off the foot of Karina Moreno, but her first-half chance was smothered but McHI goalie Grace Kelly. Her second-half opportunity pinged off the post.
McHi improves to 11-0 in 30-6A and boasts an impressive 5.4-goal average margin of victory in those contests.
Arney made note that his district isn’t bad, but McHi chases lofty non-district goals in an attempt to play at the same high level all year.
“We try to make sure we have goals throughout the season,” Arney said. “When we play our tournaments, we want to make sure we either win the tournament, or if we’re in a showcase, we played well. We lost three to nothing against No. 1 Katy Cinco Ranch in January, but their goalie came up with two huge saves, and it was a close game. We can play against really tough teams.”
The Bulldogs have one more district game — a road matchup against Mission — before the postseason begins. McHi will put a tough tournament schedule and potentially perfect district campaign to the test.
McAllen High will flip to decide the location of its first-round matchup against Laredo United South. The teams will meet March 29.
“We love playing quality teams. That brings our best play out of us,” Henderson said. “We’re really looking forward to playoffs, because we’ll have a chance to play against the best teams, and that’s what we love the most.”