STEVEN RAY HERNANDEZ | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
McALLEN — Guided by several impressive defensive saves, the McAllen Lady Bulldogs breezed past the La Joya Palmview Lady Lobos 2-0 on a relentlessly windy night in District 30-6A girls soccer play on Friday night.
“Palmview is always a tough matchup, and with this wind made it a little tough on us tonight,” McAllen High coach Patrick Arney said. “We played them earlier in the year and was tough to score, so it was nice to get some in tonight.”
It was a grueling defensive bout from the jump, with both teams remaining scoreless as the first half closed.
The first score of the night eventually came with 31:26 left in the second half, as Jackie Limas took an unassisted play halfway across the field to break the ice and put the Lady Bulldogs on the board 1-0. The second and final score of the match came by way of Dana Idrogo, who scored on a nice chip-shot after a near-goal deflection put the ball right in her path.
The Lady Bulldogs had several opportunities to add to their shutout win, but just missed the mark thanks to the unfavorable weather.
Meanwhile, the Lady Lobos had multiple scoring chances throughout the night, but were consistently debunked thanks to a few impressive saves by Lady Bulldogs goalkeeper Ruby Iracheta.
With 12 minutes left in the second half, the Lady Lobos nearly capitalized on a much-needed penalty kick, but failed after a diving save from Iracheta.
“We knew it was going to be tough tonight and it’s hard to play with this kind of wind but both teams have to play through it,” Palmview coach Danny Malacara said. “We just need to score, especially when playing a good well-coached team like them.”
Palmview also came away with several saves, but in the end could not keep up with the Lady Bulldogs second-half offensive surge.
“We got to give credit to Palmview, they are a tough team,” Arney said. “We did well but we still need to make some better decisions.”
With the win, the Lady Bulldogs improved to 5-1 in district play, while the Lady Lobos fell to 2-4.