NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
McALLEN — McAllen Rowe goalie Hethyr Moore took off her shin guards at PSJA Southwest High School after her team had completed at 4-0 shutout of the Javelinas in the PSJA ISD soccer tournament Jan. 18
The Warriors had just completed their fourth game in less than two days and Moore had large scabs on her legs.
They weren’t fresh cuts, Moore had gotten the turf burns earlier in the week at practice.
Serving as the team’s deepest player, the last line of defense before conceding a goal, is a physical task. Many goalies are multi-sport athletes, borrowing diving skills from volleyball or jumping from in track. Playing net also is a mentally and emotionally taxing position.
Moore is a part of the sacred society of stoppers with pads, pants and puffy gloves that can bail out, or sink, their team’s chance to win. Either way, attitude counts.
“I’m kind of like a pick up for the team if we score. I try to keep them up, keep them moving,” Moore said. “If the other team scores I try to keep them positive and I watch out for my teammates. If the other team’s pushing, I push back and I get rough; I tell them stuff out there.”
Her goalie idle is German keeper Manuel Neuer of Bayern Munich. She channels the 2014 World Cup champion by trying to keep a traffic-free zone in front of her.
“I always have to make sure that there’s no one trying to run behind,” Moore said. “Everybody knows that there’s a person or that if there’s a person on(side) that they know. It’s really all about positioning, knowing where your poles are at, where the people are at.”
Edinburg High’s Kristen Salinas is only a sophomore and relatively new to the position between the pipes.
“I’ve never played goalie before last year, halfway through the season I started playing,” Salinas said. “It’s been real interesting to learn the position. I’ve always wanted to play it. It’s really tough having the pressure on you sometimes, but I love the pressure. My parents always tell me I work better under pressure.”
If your only experience with soccer is on an elementary, or even in early youth leagues playground then maybe you’d think the least skilled player would be sent to play goalie, but that couldn’t be further from the truth on this stage.
Salinas played on the varsity volleyball team and her move in siccer to goalkeeper came after she was formerly a Bobcats midfielder.
“When I was younger, I think I was 7 or 8, that’s when I first started goalkeeper,” UTRGV graduate and Vaqueros all-time saves leader Erica Gonzalez said. “They would stick me there cause I would always get sick, I had really bad asthma. Definitely a lot better now, but that’s how it all started.”
Back in 30-6A, McAllen High boasts one of the best keepers in the area, Lexi Gonzalez.
Thanks to her unforgettable play in the Bulldogs’ 2018 playoff run, she etched a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten.
“Having a good goalie is so important for the confidence of the team,” McHi coach Pat Arney said. “When I don’t have a goalie that I completely trust, every shot is a heartstopper. With a good goalie like Lexi, you can relax more and you can start thinking about other things.”
At the Class 6A Region IV tournament in San Antonio, Lexi stood tall to help defeat San Antonio Johnson 2-1 and shut out Austin Lake Travis in the regional final 1-0.
The junior’s height, right at six feet, along with a 9-foot-8-inch ‘approach touch,’ (a common volleyball measurement) gave her the reach to tap corner kicks or centering crosses clear over the crossbar. Not to mention the occasional punch.
Those same qualities are part of the reason she was offered to play volleyball for Oregon State prior to her junior season. She has given a verbal to attend the school and plans to sign during her senior year.
The future Beaver finds a way to transition from her collegiate sport to her first love.
“It was definitely difficult because I haven’t played for a while,” Lexi Gonzalez said during the first competitive soccer games of the 2019 season. “Coming from volleyball I was like ‘maybe diving on the court won’t be as hard as diving for a soccer ball’ so it was definitely a challenge at first. I had to get back into it and focus more on talking with my team.”
She says the stretching and the skills used overlap and make it easier to get back to the pitch.
“Stretching wise we stretch the same,” Lexi Gonzalez said. “Basically being goalie is like training for volleyball a lot. It’s upper-body a lot most of the time because we’re going to catch stuff so it’s actually very similar.”
Styles in the net are another key factor when an attacking player is trying to score. On a breakaway, goaltenders have minimal time to make the all-important choice: Rush the shooter to cut down the angle and perhaps tackle the ball right off their foot or hold ground in net to ensure the attacker doesn’t simply dribble around the keeper.
For Erica, who is not very tall, she always went back to taking matters in her own hands. During high school, she trained with the same Brownsville-based goalie coach as McHi’s Gonzalez. Even with the same trainer and similar successes they are very different backstops.
“My biggest strength is probably my aggressiveness and my reactions; those would always save me,” Erica Gonzalez said. “I can hop, I can make those upper 90 saves. I have the adrenaline in me, but I guess just being 5’ 4” that’s what makes it harder. These women are large and they’re strong.”
What started as the position that would help her stay healthy, turned into the role that allowed her to continue her education while competing. The 2017 UTRGV grad said that for dedicated soccer players the final high school whistle doesn’t have to signify the end of a career.
“It’s possible for everyone,” Erica Gonzalez said. “Even at that the (NCAA) Div. 1 level, I have seen teams that any girl on any varsity team in the RGV could play for. There’s a level for everyone. Everyone can go off and play at the next level. You gotta work for it and contact those coaches first.”