McHi prevails over Lady Warriors in shootout

McALLEN — On the surface, there wasn’t much on the line in Friday night’s McAllen High-McAllen Rowe girls soccer match. The top-ranked Lady Bulldogs had already clinched the District 30-5A title and No. 4 Rowe had earned a postseason berth.

Still, that didn’t keep either from engaging in a tough, physical match at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium in which the Lady Bulldogs prevailed, 3-2, in a shootout.

McAllen High improved to 13-0 (38 points) in district play, while the Lady Warriors fell to 9-4 (29 points). McHi earned two points in the standings by winning the shootout, 3-0.  But the way each coach spoke about the match, it was like a win-win for both squads.

“The girls are playing well, they are playing hard,” McHi coach Pat Arney said. “We needed a good, hard game before the playoffs. This is good character-building. We were down a goal and we came back. Character. That’s what these girls have, and I’m glad they proved it tonight.”

Rowe led twice and McHi quickly responded with an equalizer each time. McHi peppered 23 shots on Rowe goalkeeper Josyln Sarmiento and owned the run of play for most of the match. The Lady Warriors generated just four shots, but they took advantage of two Lady Bulldog defensive lapses for their scores.

“I’m very proud of the girls,” Rowe coach Barbara Torres-Garza said. “This is the closest we’ve come to beating McHi, and this is the closest that anyone in our district has so far. We did an outstanding job tonight. We played with a lot of heart. McHi was getting a lot of shots, but I was proud with the way our defense played tonight. This is going to be a confidence-builder. We won, either way.”

Megan Ochoa scored McHi’s first goal on a header off a free kick from 30 yards out by Dani Flores in the 12th minute to tie the game at 1.

“We know each other so well,” Ochoa said of Flores. “I knew she wasn’t going for goal. I just wanted to get it because they already had one.”

Ochoa also had two saves and scored the match-clinching goal in the shootout. Ochoa’s first goal came seven minutes after Rowe’s Stephanie Rodriguez finished a nice diagonal pass by teammate Fernanda Baena on the match’s first shot.

Rowe took a 2-1 lead in the 66th minute when Amber de la Cruz curved in a shot from the right side following a mad sequence that started when Rodriguez tracked down a through ball and poked a shot that was heading into the net. However, McHi sweeper Sarah Regalado raced to the ball and cleared it just inches from the goal line. The ball remained in play and de la Cruz one-timed it for the score.

“Rowe’s a quality team,” Arney said. “We knew if we made any mistakes, they were going to punish us.”

McHi answered nine minutes later when Tara Sparks, a speedster who had been a pest up top all night, settled a hard pass and weaved her way past three defenders to tie the match, 2-2.

In addition to Ochoa, Sparks and Maegan Idrogo had scores in the shootout for McHi, which finishes the regular season against La Joya Palmview.

“They had us,” Ochoa said of Rowe. “I knew they were going to come out hard. They played an amazing game. I had so much fun playing against them. I didn’t want to lose. We never got down even when they got the lead. We knew there was time for us. We never gave up.”

 David Hinojosa covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4442 or via e-mail at dhinojosa@themonitor.com