By EDWARD SEVERN, Staff Writer
BROWNSVILLE — The BISD Showcase wrapped up Saturday with two Brownsville schools on the field.
The Rivera Raiders defeated the Jubilee Titans 8-1.
The soccer-heavy city of Brownsville wrapped up another weekend of multiple games.
“This is the first year we have done this, it is not too bad,” Rivera coach Salvador Garcia said. “It was OK in general, just OK. Some good teams, there is room for improvement next year.”
“We have been improving every game and that was the objective coming into the showcase, but there is obviously plenty of room for improvement. We have played players in different positions and learned a lot. We haven’t played a perfect game yet, but we are improving.”
Rivera dominated possession the entire match. The Raiders spent most of the time in Jubilee’s defensive third, and when they did lose the ball their back line was high, enabling them to sweep up most of Jubilee’s attacking threats.
Rivera got on the scoreboard early and often. The first was a tap-in by Andy Romero inside 10 minutes. The Raiders added two more shortly after.
Jubilee got on the board after Luis Garza weaved by multiple Raiders defenders and played a terrific outside-of-the-foot pass for Kevin Ramirez, who finished to cut the lead to 3-1.
Rivera re-established its big lead on both sides of the half. Romero got his brace shortly after halftime to give Rivera the 4-1 lead.
The one-touch passing by the Raiders wore the Titans down and led to easy and wide-open chances as Rivera poured it on its Class 4A foe.
“We have a lot of work still to do, but we have a lot of potential and we have been getting better, little by little,” senior Marco Diaz said.