NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
HIDALGO — Mario De Los Santos is an illustrious goal scorer for Valley View, but even he has nights when the scoring touch is missing. Two sophomores scored for the Tigers on Friday as they defeated Sharyland High 2-0 in District 31-5A action.
Twice Sharyland (0-1) had an opportunity to score from the penalty spot. With the Tigers already holding a 2-0 lead, Sharyland’s Jose Torres was fouled, and Alberto Martinez stepped up to try to cut the lead in half.
Martinez tried to catch Elian Chavez guessing, but the keeper lunged to his left and kept the ball out. The stop excited the Valley View team, with many players congratulating him as the ball went out of play.
Though he wasn’t tested often, Chavez said the goalie needs to be ready to come up big.
“You have to be concentrating 100 percent, because you never know which situation is going to happen,” Chavez said through an interpreter. “He’s happy that he kept us in the game and happy we came up with the victory.”
On the second attempt, the Rattlers turned to Alonso Gonzalez, who sent a shot high and wide.
Valley View coach Damian Magallan wasn’t necessarily pleased with the calls that led to the penalties but had no quarrels with the play of his goalie.
“The refs called it, but we’re glad that we have our keeper ready. He stepped up and kept us in the game when we were up 2-0,” Magallan said through an interpreter.
Valley View (2-0) could have had more goals on the board, but a handful of missed opportunities allowed for the drama to creep in.
Super sophomores turned into the theme of the evening on Valley View’s parent’s night. First, Oscar Golindo capitalized on a mistake in the box by Sharyland’s defense and goalkeeper.
A foul committed just inside Sharyland’s half led to a free kick by Valley View’s Adrian Rodriguez, who sent the kick sailing nearly 50 yards. Rattlers goalie Gabriel Tamez got glove on the ball but not enough to keep it away from Golindo, who tipped the ball into the yawning net.
On Valley View’s second goal, Sharyland’s Tamez seemed to have control before losing the ball to Carlos Medina in scoring position.
Medina, a forward, followed the messy rebound and had to beat the last defender and the post, but he eventually sent home the insurance.
“The goalkeeper had it, so I was not going to pressure him. But once I noticed the ball went a little too far, I started pressuring him. He bounced it off me,” Medina said. “I saw the ball spinning, spinning, and I thought it was going out. Once it hit the post, I was like, ‘I have to make it.’ I did, and it was a beautiful moment.”
The underclassman said he was happy to be contributing against older competition.
“It feels pretty good, because us as sophomores (are) playing with seniors and everything,” Medina said. “It’s really special to us as little kids, so it feels very good. We’re proud of ourselves.”
De Los Santos had a golden chance just five minutes into the game, when he found himself alone against Tamez. But Sharyland’s keeper was up to the task, diving and keeping him off the scoreboard.
When Sharyland was frantically sending balls forward late to try to climb back into the match, the opportunity to counterattack arose, giving De Los Santos more looks and grade A scoring chances.
“Last season, Mario De Los Santos was scoring all the goals, and this season, we have more opportunities with more players that can actually step up,” Magallan said. “So now, we don’t depend that much on him, since we have more players that can put the ball in the back of the net.”