By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
The Rivera Raiders overwhelmed San Antonio Reagan early Friday with three goals during the first 24 minutes to secure their spot in Saturday’s regional final at the Region IV-6A Tournament at Brownsville Sports Park.
As well as they played during the opening half to lead 3-0, the District 32-6A champion Raiders (25-0) missed opportunity after opportunity during the final 40 minutes and wound up settling for a 3-1 victory before a vocal crowd of 2,000 fans.
“We touched the ball a lot (early), and everything came out,” said Rivera’s Alexis Herrera, a senior forward who scored the Raiders’ third goal. “Everything fell in place. That’s what we planned, so thank God we got those three goals really fast. I’m glad.
“The second half was a little frustrating,” he added. “Maybe we got a little overconfident and our energy level went down. We came out with the win, and that’s what is most important.”
Added teammate Isidro “Chelin” Martinez, a senior attacking midfielder, “We knew that if we could score one, other goals would come right after. It doesn’t matter about records, stats or who scores the goals. What matters is who wants it most, and we showed that out there in this game.”
Rivera advanced to the regional final for the second consecutive year. The Raiders lost to Lopez 3-2 at that stage of the playoffs last season in San Antonio.
The Raiders will go against San Antonio Brandeis in Saturday’s 3 p.m. regional final at BSP.
“Hard work pays off,” said Eliseo Ortiz, a senior forward who scored Rivera’s second goal. “We’re going to keep working hard until our dream pays off.”
Just six minutes into the match, Rivera’s Hernan Cruz scored from close range to make it 1-0.
Eleven minutes later, thanks to Ortiz’s close-range goal, it became 2-0, and then nine minutes after that, the lead increased to 3-0 when Herrera tallied from about 12 yards out.
At that point, the Raiders led by three goals with 16 minutes remaining until intermission.
Their 3-0 lead stood until District 26-6A runner-up Reagan (16-5-3) scored its lone goal by Christian Dwarica with six and a half minutes to go.
“Thank God the ball went in early for us, and that was a big difference,” Rivera coach Salvador Garcia said. “We knew if we played our game, Reagan was going to get frustrated.
“I told our players on Monday that if we played the way we were supposed to play, it would be the first time they would see a team like us,” Garcia added.