South ready to battle Reagan

HARLINGEN - It's rare for the Harlingen South girls soccer team to go into a match as the underdog.
And the Lady Hawks will be in that unaccustomed role, when they take to the pitch at 2 p.m. today against San Antonio Reagan in the Class 5A, Region IV semifinals.
After all, the Lady Rattlers (20-2-2) have won four of five games in the regional semis against Valley opponents. McAllen became the first Valley team to win a Class 5A regional semifinal when it beat Reagan, 1-0, in 2007 at Blossom Athletic Center, where South and Reagan will meet today in the second semifinal.
Edinburg North will meet San Antonio MacArthur in the first semifinal set for noon.
Being an underdog is not a role that the Lady Hawks (30-2-1) particularly care for.
During practice on Wednesday, freshman Claudia Torres bemoaned the fact that South might be taken a little lightly by San Antonio squads.
"We need to go out and play hard and not be satisfied with just making the regional semifinals," she said.
The Lady Hawks will be missing striker Abby Saldivar, who combined speed and clinical finishing ability.
However, Lady Hawks head coach Omar Pedroza knows that soccer can be a funny game and that can be to the Lady Hawks' advantage, despite playing on what basically is Reagan's home field.
"If we play our best," he said.
South has made the regional final once, back in 2003 when the Lady Hawks were a Class 4A program.
They came very close in 2005, when they lost in a shootout to eventual regional champion MacArthur and would have won if it wasn't for a miracle save by the MacArthur ‘keeper in the last minute.
There are some similarities between this South team and that 2005 unit.
They score seemingly at will, are stingy on defense and romped through district like they were playing in their own back garden.
But that can be said of just about every edition of the Lady Hawks.
However, like in 2005, this team is still young with only one senior in Pat Torres. Like in 2005, they have good width with Caitlin Fennegan and Claudia Torres. And just like 2005, there is a Flores who finds the back of the net with regularity. In 2005, it was Lianah; this season it's her sister, Sarah.
Some of the Lady Hawks were in the stands for that game, just as the whole team was in the stands watching the closing moments of McAllen's victory last year.
And there's no doubt, the Lady Hawks want to feel that same kind of joy.