LA FERIA — PSJA Southwest rallied from behind to defeat San Benito 3-1 at the fourth annual La Feria Lionettes soccer tournament on Saturday afternoon at Lions Stadium.
Two second-half goals from Lizeth Cantu helped the Lady Javelinas overcome an early 1-0 deficit. Teammate Salma Gonzalez also notched a goal in the game as PSJA Southwest managed to navigate through the tournament with a perfect 7-0 record.
“Three games in a day is very heavy and I had to rely a lot on my subs,” said PSJA Southwest head coach Juan Rodriguez. “Everybody performed good as you saw here in the championship.
“We’ve progressed a lot. This is my freshman group from four years ago and their progress is starting to show.”
The Lady Javelinas started the tourney by defeating Mission 1-0 and Rio Hondo 6-0 on Thursday afternoon in group action. On Friday, Southwest hammered Raymondville 9-0 and Weslaco East 2-0 before defeating Palmview and PSJA North on Saturday morning to reach the finals.
Despite the loss, it was the Lady Greyhounds that got on the scoreboard first.
San Benito’s Marianna Barrera scored after Southwest goalkeeper Zaira Trevino deflected the ball into the area and Barrea was there to toe-poke it in.
After the break, Cantu let off a stunning shot from 25 yards out that sailed over the San Benito keeper Maria Christensen to even the score at 1-1 with 20 minutes remaining in the game.
“She is one of our leaders in the group and she understands the game really well,” said Rodriguez of Cantu. “She been on the varsity team since she was a freshman and she is one of my most reliable players.
“She plays my No. 10 role and is very aggressive. She does what has to be done.”
Five minutes later, Gonzalez broke the deadlock and put the Lady Javelinas ahead after San Benito failed to clear a loose ball out of the area.
It was the second loss of the tournament for the Lady Hounds.
After dropping the first game to Eagle Pass 1-0 on Thursday, San Benito won its next five to secure a place in the finals.
“Overall, I was pleased with the effort of the team,” said San Benito head coach Eddie Gonzalez. “All the credit goes to the players who worked hard at practice and continued to improve.
“Today I felt the team competed very well in the against a talented and well-coached PSJA Southwest team. It could have gone either way but unfortunately for us, we came up a little short.”