By STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
McAllen Memorial’s ascendance into a perennial playoff contender in District 30-6A can be viewed as a microcosm of the exponential growth of the quality of girls soccer in the Rio Grande Valley in recent years.
The man who believes this most strongly might have been the one watching from the opposite sideline.
“I’ve been doing this thing for, like, 23 years now,” Harlingen South coach Omar Pedroza said after his team’s 3-1 loss to the Lady Mustangs (9-0) on Friday night. “I’ve seen the level of girls soccer just get better and better and better.”
Pedroza said the first half — one that saw his Lady Hawks (11-1) find themselves down 3-0 after eight minutes — reminded him of playing tournaments up north against the likes of San Antonio powerhouses Reagan and Churchill.
“They’re at that level,” Pedroza said. “These guys, and McHi, I think they’re just as good as anybody in San Antonio. And we’re not too bad either.”
Harlingen South hit the crossbar three times — twice in the second half — and had a golden opportunity in front of the net that was stuffed by the McAllen Memorial goalkeeper.
“You really don’t want to finish in second place in our district,” Pedroza said. “Second place pretty much guarantees that we’re going to play McHi or McAllen Memorial. If you get first place, you might not have to face them until a regional final.”
The Lady Mustangs dominated possession from the outset by pushing the pace and spreading the defense across the field.
“We like to work the outsides and get down the field,” Kaiser said. “If we can get close to the corners and put balls in the middle, that’s what we’re looking for. It’s not a lot of straight-forward hammer the goal, we like to take that outside-in approach.”
As alarmed as Pedroza was by the shell-shocked performance of the opening minutes, he was pleased by his team’s response, generating chances and spending the majority of the second half on the attack.
Finally, the Lady Hawks were rewarded for their renewed intensity with a goal from senior defender Mellory Grannum, who launched a 35-yard strike from the right of the box into the top left corner of the net.
“I told the girls at halftime, there’s not a better start for our team than what we were able to do,” Kaiser said. They came out with some energy in the second half, and they were a different team than they were in the first 10 minutes, so the shock wore off. Coach Pedroza is a great coach, he got them refocused quickly and gave us a run for it.”
The Lady Mustangs are confident they have sufficiently tested themselves ahead of district play.
“We had long break from our Corpus tournament championship,” Kaiser said. “This was a good indicator for me. We’re right where we left off, we had a good challenge tonight that we were able to handle. That’s right where you want to be in district.”