ROY HESS | Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — The Rivera Raiders can celebrate another District 32-6A championship in soccer during Spring Break.
A 1-0 victory over San Benito on a breezy Friday night at Bobby Morrow Stadium gave the Raiders their third straight 32-6A title and their fourth district championship in five years.
Spring Break is next week and there won’t be any games until March 19, which is the final date for district competition. Practice still goes on early in the week.
The Lady Raiders made it a sweep for Rivera with a 2-1 victory against the Lady Greyhounds in Friday’s nightcap of the 32-6A doubleheader.
It wasn’t one of the best-played games for the Rivera boys Friday, but it was enough to win.
The game-winner came just three and a half minutes into the second half when Rivera’s Juan Pablo “J.P.” Garza dribbled down the middle on the attack and got off a shot with defenders close around him. The shot went past the San Benito goalkeeper and caught the back of the net for the only goal of the match.
“I just dribbled in and scored,” said Garza, a senior forward, of the game-winner. “We’ve been preparing for this (title) since summer. We’ve been practicing a lot. (Actually) we’re preparing for state. District is not our (ultimate) goal.”
Six minutes after Garza’s goal, the Raiders almost netted another one when Jorge Morales had a header bounce off the crossbar after receiving a centering pass from the left side.
“It’s great to see us go back-to-back-to-back (winning district titles),” said Morales, a senior defensive midfielder. “Our hard work is paying off.
“San Benito gave us a fight tonight,” Morales added. “Over the years they’ve gotten better. They just couldn’t score tonight.
“We’re not going to be satisfied with just a district championship (though).”
With one district game remaining March 19 against Harlingen High, the Raiders are 7-2 in 32-6A with 21 points.
San Benito, which also has already qualified for the playoffs, slipped to 5-4 in district with 14 points.
“It was a tough loss for us tonight,” Greyhounds coach William Huerta said. “We made some mistakes and Rivera capitalized on them. The kids played hard. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
“We’ll get back to work and finish the season strong,” he added.
Rivera coach Salvador Garcia said his team has improved quite a bit since the start of the season. He said that improvement just didn’t show very much during Friday’s game.
“We have to give credit to San Benito, but playing the kind of soccer we did tonight, we’re only going to last one or two rounds in the playoffs,” the Raiders coach said. “We have a lot of problems we need to fix, but tonight, it was just one of those games. Guys were walking, there was no discipline and it just wasn’t the way we like to play.
“We finally have everyone healthy, which is good, but we’re not playing the way we should,” he added. “If we don’t play better, it’s going to be a brief playoff appearance for us.”
Meanwhile, the Lady Raiders scored one goal during each half to get their win over the Lady Greyhounds. Scoring the Lady Raiders’ goals were Yianey Diaz and Michelle Rodriguez.
The Lady Raiders improved to 2-6 in district with six points. The San Benito girls are 0-9 with no points.