By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Unlike the last time they played, there was no doubt about the outcome of Tuesday’s soccer match involving the St. Joseph Academy Bloodhounds.
They scored a pair of goals during each half to begin the TAPPS playoffs with a convincing 4-0 victory at home against Plano Prestonwood.
During their previous game last Saturday, the Bloodhounds had to summon all their comeback karma to rally from a 2-0 deficit and win 3-2 in overtime at Canales Field against San Antonio Antonian.
This one was never as close.
Playing their final home game of the season, the Bloodhounds (17-5-1) dominated the action from start to finish and made it a match their fans could sit back and enjoy.
Luis Amaro, a senior forward for SJA, highlighted the victory by scoring two goals, one during each half.
“It felt great because it was my last game at home and I wanted to make the proper goodbye,” Amaro said. “A win like this gives us confidence and makes us believe in ourselves.
“We’ve been playing kind of up and down lately, but we’re going to have to go up,” Amaro added. “It’s only going to get harder in the playoffs.
“We’re not done yet.”
SJA faces Fort Worth Nolan or Houston St. Pius on Saturday in the next round of the playoffs at a neutral site, possibly San Antonio or Corpus Christi.
On this particular Tuesday under sunny skies with slightly warm temperatures, Anuar Atiye’s goal from the left side off a deflected shot taken by teammate Mario Garcia gave the Bloodhounds a 1-0 advantage 15 minutes into the match.
It wasn’t long before Amaro attacked from the right side and sent a crossing shot into the left corner of the net with 8 1/2 minutes to go in the first half to account for SJA’s 2-0 lead at intermission.
The Bloodhounds didn’t waste any time in the second half as Amaro’s medium-range shot from the left side carried into the right corner of the goal just two minutes after action resumed. At that point, SJA was up 3-0 and looking pretty good.
With eight minutes gone in the second half, it became 4-0 on a goal by Andres Rico.
Prestonwood (9-18-2) didn’t really have any kind of threatening shot attempt that Bloodhounds goalkeeper Mario Ramirez had to make a play on until 25 minutes remained in the game.
It was the kind of dominating showing that pleased SJA coach Tino Villarreal.
“Today was definitely a good performance by St. Joe,” he said. “This is exactly the level of soccer that I thought we were playing before we were humbled (5-0 by McAllen High and 4-2 by Edinburg North) at the Brownsville (ISD) Tournament (in January).
“I think we’re picking it up to right where it needs to be if we plan to make a deep run in the playoffs,” he added. “I liked that we didn’t come out flat today (as we did in the Antonian game). We were touching the ball well and moving it well. There was a lot of communication (between our players). Those are things that I felt we were lacking in our last couple of outings.
“I think today we played the kind of soccer we were playing right before the BISD Tournament, and hopefully we’re back into the swing of things at the right moment. It’s all about timing if you want to make a deep playoff run, and today was a step in the right direction.”