On Saturday, American Pharoah became the first horse to capture the Triple Crown since 1978. The second he and jockey Victor Espinoza crossed the finish line at Belmont Park is a moment sports fans had waited for years to see and is not one that will soon be forgotten.
Or what about the moment in Super Bowl XLIX earlier this year when the Seattle Seahawks decided to pass on second-and-goal rather than hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch? The pass resulted in an interception and a 28-24 win for the New England Patriots. The Seahawks and their fans may never live the moment down.
On Tuesday, the top Valley sports moment of the 2014-15 season will be revealed at the RGVSports.com & Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame awards ceremony.
Three finalists are up for the Moment of the Year Award.
The first is when Port Isabel’s Danielle Murchison won her third consecutive state title in the shot put at the UIL state track & field meet last month in Austin.
Murchison’s first-place throw occurred on her first attempt, measuring 44 feet, 1 inch. During the first round, no other competitor surpassed 40 feet.
She is the first Valley track athlete to ever win three state golds in a row and she qualified for the state meet every year of her high school career, collecting two medals a year ago after winning bronze in the discus.
Murchison will now take her talents to Southern Methodist University in the fall.
The second nominee up for Moment of the Year is when the Brownsville Rivera boys soccer team captured the inaugural Class 6A state title with a 2-0 victory over Katy Cinco Ranch on April 18 in Georgetown. The win enabled the Raiders to complete the season with a remarkable 28-0 record.
The Raiders went up 1-0 during the 16th minute on a shot from approximately 12 yards out on the left side by Isidro “Chelin” Martinez, who was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. David Alexander added Rivera’s second goal on a shot from about 10 yards into the left corner of the net, and the Raiders had all the scoring they needed.
The final nominee for top moment is when the San Benito Greyhounds rallied for an improbable 25-21 win over Harlingen High in the Battle of the Arroyo on Oct. 10, 2014.
The Greyhounds scored 22 points during the last five minutes of the game to overcome a 21-3 fourth-quarter deficit and stun the Cards at Bobby Morrow Stadium in San Benito.
The Greyhounds were actually out of timeouts on their last two drives, but they made plays through the air with a hurry-up offense and capitalized on onside kicks, and big-play catches by receivers to get the job done.
Tuesday’s awards ceremony will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Col. Philip J. Yeckel Memorial Auditorium on the campus of Marine Military Academy in Harlingen. Admission is free.