By Estefani Carrasquedo | Special to The Monitor
HIDALGO — Playing for the first time this season, the top two teams in District 31-5A faced off Tuesday night. Sharyland High pulled off the huge 2-1 win over Valley View at Tiger Stadium, the No. 3 team in the RGVSports.com Top 10 upsetting No. 2.
“Our team is young and it showed in the beginning,” Valley View assistant coach Jerry Salazar said. “They are a very good and experienced team and the loss should make our kids work harder. We expect a bounce-back and hopefully we play better next time we face them.”
Andres Tamez opened the scoring on a free kick with 16 minutes left in the first half, giving the Rattlers an early lead. But the Tigers countered moments later on Avi Garcia’s assist to Fermin Hernandez to force a 1-1 tie at the half.
But the second half was doomed by an error by Valley View. Damian Magallan Jr. scored on his own goal, which was attributed to Sharyland’s Gabriel Garza. It was an unwelcome sight for the Valley View coach, Damian’s father.
“Coming into this game, we knew that whoever committed the mistakes would lose it,” Magallan Sr. said. “Unfortunately, it was my own son, but we’re going to keep working hard and lift our heads up and hopefully not make anymore mistakes.”
It was a costly error that allowed Sharyland High a big win over a rival it will see again down the line.
“This was a very hard game, Valley View is an excellent team,” Rattlers coach Rev Hernandez said. “I think we did good against an excellent opponent.”
During the previous seasons, these two teams played each other twice and split the meetings. This season may be no different.