Coach Hugo Garcia informed The News Gram that his girls have given their all night in and night out for the program and he appreciates their effort.
“We said good bye to Mariana Perez , Mariana Wong , Ana Gonzalez, and Yoanna Velasquez,” said the coach, who was proud for their performance and dedication to the Lady Eagle Soccer Program.
The ladies and their fans were rewarded with a great match against arch rivals The Del Rio Queens at Foster- Veterans Memorial Stadium. “We started well and had a couple of days to rest up, and we had a couple of practices due to our open date on Tuesday despite the fact that we had spring break. Marie Ester Medrano replaced Karen Zamarrippa and Atzimba Vargas played the midfield position, and Jessica Pacheco and Alana Ojeda were back to bring speed and hustle to our team. We had a couple of through passes as Atzimba was able to place the ball behind the defense and Jessica Pacheco used her speed to get good shots on goal.” “Midway through the half, Alana stole a ball, passed it to Atzimba who made a good through pass to Jessica
Pacheco, who raced by the defense and ripped a shot into the net for a 1-0 lead.” Coach Garcia said that they had the wind at their backs and were able to create many chances for a second goal.
“In the second half we kept battling and the defensive back four of Sam Cruz, Michelle Lopez, Mariana Wong , and Mariester Medrano did an awesome job of keeping Del Rio out.“ Del Rio would find a way to get behind the Eagle Pass Defense to tie the game. “Our player of the game was our goalkeeper, freshman Esmeralda Martinez, who is getting better every game. She made stop after stop after stop. Del Rio was fouled just outside the box and their senior hit the direct shot low and it deflected off a defender’s foot into the net to tie the match.” The rest of the half saw both teams go back and forth creating chances to win, but the time ran out and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
“It was a total team effort. I saw a better competitive spirit from our team on the last game of the season.” On Tuesday, the girls traveled to Laredo to face Alexander. “We started well as we had a couple of runs into their territory. Marie Ester Medrano made a nice pass to Lesly Jaramillo, who one timed it from outside the box. The shot grazed the top bar. It was back and forth for the first 16 minutes as we had good intensity.” About half way through the half Alexander struck first, as they opened up the scoring with a nice shot on goal; 0-1 Alexander.
“We had a couple of injuries where we had to replace players and it became a struggle to make 2 or 3 passes consecutively,” added Coach Garcia, “A good team like Alexander then feasted on us the rest of the half. We had no answer as they got 4 goals in the last 12 minutes. “ “In the second half we tried slowing them down but couldn’t muster any offense. We strung 3 passes together and Atzimba got behind their defense, it was her and a clear path to goal. She got tripped from behind (which should have been a red card) but the ref only assigned a yellow. Alexander got 3 more goals and the score was 0-8 with a minute and change left . There was a hard foul and the ref red-carded Karen Zamarripa.”
A.D. Ibarra
-Foster-Veterans Memorial
Stadium