By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
After going to penalty kicks during each of their first three district soccer games, the Brownsville Veterans Memorial Chargers have won their past two 32-6A matches by decisive margins.
The latest of them is Tuesday’s 4-0 victory at home by the Chargers (3-2, 10 points) against Harlingen High (0-5).
The Chargers built a 3-0 first-half lead before scoring on a header off a corner kick with a little more than one minute remaining to account for the final result and notch their second straight shutout win.
Brownsville Veterans was coming off Friday’s 5-0 triumph at San Benito.
“I think we played a complete game against San Benito, and tonight I thought we might have lost a little bit of our rhythm in the second half, I guess because we had a three-goal lead,” Chargers coach Alberto Vasquez said. “We’ve definitely been able to put some things together that we weren’t able to do in the first three (district) games.
“I think we were a little off-rhythm in those first three games,” he added. “We played some very tight, competitive matches, and we ended up going to overtime (and PKs) game after game after game. It kind of wore us down.
“We’re picking up a little bit of momentum now, but we have to do that so we can get as many points as we can before the first round of district ends. We want to make sure we’re in a good position to make a run for the playoffs, and hopefully make a run for the district title as well. Those were the goals we were thinking about even before the season started.”
Seven and a half minutes into Tuesday’s match, the Chargers were ahead 1-0 thanks to a strong shot that Ramiro Perez drove into the goal from the right side. He came charging into the area with the ball and beat the Cardinals’ goalkeeper in a 1-on-1 situation from about 15 yards for a 1-0 lead.
“We were able to do the same thing against San Benito (by scoring early),” Vasquez said. “We scored within the first two and a half minutes in that game. We went after them right away. (Scoring early) kind of settles down the players a little bit, and we can play better.
“Getting two more goals before halftime tonight was definitely a great thing,” he added.
Gabriel Montoya tallied goals for the Chargers during the 21st and 26th minutes to make it 3-0 at intermission.
During the second half with time winding down toward only one minute left, the Chargers took a corner kick from the right side and Jesus Arena headed in the ball to cap the 4-0 victory.
District competition continues at 7:30 p.m. Friday as Brownsville Veterans will be at home against Los Fresnos and Harlingen High will entertain Lopez.