Playoff bound

With the Valley high school soccer season winding down, several Big 7 teams are fighting for their playoff lives. There are at least two teams however that have already clinched playoff berths, the Juarez-Lincoln Huskies and the Lady Huskies. Both these teams have one district game left to play, and while tonight’s results are meaningless to one of these teams, there’s a lot riding on the regular season finale for the other.

 

 

Juarez-Lincoln Huskies

 

 

The fact that the Juarez-Lincoln Huskies have clinched a playoff berth should come as no surprise to anyone since they have done so every year of their existence. That is correct, ever since Juarez-Lincoln High School opened its doors in 2008 and head coach Victor Ramos began the boys’ soccer program there, the Huskies boys have never missed out on the UIL state playoffs.

 

“I initiated this program and every year, thank God, we we’ve been in the playoffs…18 years,” Ramos said immediately after his team’s 10-0 win over the Mission Veterans Patriots Tuesday evening. “I had two more (years) with La Joya with Coach Roli Cabrera. I was his assistant. I was two years with him before coming to Juarez. So that’s 20 straight years in the playoffs.”

 

While just making the playoffs is good enough for a lot of high school soccer teams, the Huskies are always looking for more. And as history has proven, they’ve always gotten more. And while Ramos has not kept track of his team’s total wins over the past 18 years, he has kept track of the championships.

 

“I think we have 14 district championships and we’ve only lost one Bi-district game,” Ramos said. “So that’s 16 Bi-district championships. That’s one we lost and one was (due to) Covid that we couldn’t play. And that was one of the best teams. That was right after that team that went to the Regional Final. They stopped it (the regular season) one or two games before the end of the season and we were already district champions. We were like three or four games ahead.”

 

 

As previously mentioned, the Huskies’ most recent win was a mercy rule shortened 10-0 win over the Mission Veterans Patriots Tuesday evening. This rule takes effect in the middle of the second half if one team has an eight point or larger lead over the other. With the Huskies having scored nine goals in the first half and another early in the second half, and with the Patriots unable to hit the back of the net for a goal at any point in the game, Tuesday night’s game was called with 20 minutes remaining on the clock.

 

As a result of that win, the Huskies not only know they’re in the playoffs, but know who, when and where they’re playing in the Bi-district round.  This is despite the fact that they have one more regular season game remaining on their schedule.

 

“We knew that Mission Vets wasn’t doing really well so we tried to play our game,” Ramos said. “We have Nixon coming in and we already know that we’re going to Corpus Christi next Thursday at 6 at Cabaniss West against Corpus Christi Ray.”

 

While the Huskies will not be adding another district championship gold ball to their trophy case this year, they are in the playoffs and that’s all that matters. Last season was a perfect example of this when despite the fact that the Huskies were the fourth seed in the playoffs, they were one of the last Valley teams, if not the last, left standing in the playoffs when they advanced into the fourth round by defeating Corpus Christi Carroll, Brownsville Porter and Cedar Park in the first three rounds.

 

 

“We got fourth (last year),” Ramos said. “The last game decided the first place and the last place. It was that close. It was a very tight season and we had the opportunity to play well throughout the playoffs. We had the opportunity to go on and play for the Regional championship but we lost due to one mistake. They played defense the whole game. They played on their half of field and we tried to score but they scored and we couldn’t do anything,”

 

The Huskies lost that game to the eventual state champions, Liberty Hill Jaguars, 1-0. So even though they did not win a district championship last year, they did win Bi-district, Area and Regional Semifinal championships. How the Huskies will fare in the playoffs this year remains to be determined, but with their history, don’t be surprised if they are once again one of the Valley’s last boys’ soccer teams left standing when all is said and done.

 

Juarez-Lincoln Lady Huskies

 

 

In the second game of Tuesday night’s soccer doubleheader at Juarez-Lincoln High School, the Lady Huskies defeated the Mission Veterans Lady Patriots 5-4. This was a back and forth game with the Lady Huskies taking a 3-0 lead on three goals by America Leal before the Lady Patriots got on the scoreboard late in the first half to make the score 3-1 Lady Huskies at halftime.

 

The Lady Patriots came out of halftime on fire however as they scored three consecutive goals in the first 11 minutes of the second half to take a 4-3 lead. But the Lady Huskies were far from being done, as was Leal, as she scored two more goals in the second half to give the Lady Huskies the win.

 

The loss was a costly one for the Lady Patriots as it eliminated them from playoff contention as head coach Kenan Nunez explained immediately after the game.

 

 

“We had to win and then either Palmview or Mission had to lose a game. We’re officially in fifth place while Mission and Palmview are fighting for third place,” Nunez said.

 

As for the Lady Huskies, they’re in the playoffs, but there’s still a lot riding on their game tonight against Laredo Nixon.

 

“Right now we’re tied for first with Nixon,” Lady Huskies’ coach Arnoldo Cardenas said. Whoever wins tonight is the district champion.”

 

In the first round of District 30-5A play, the Lady Mustangs defeated the Lady Huskies 3-1 on Juarez-Lincoln’s home field. If the Lady Huskies can return that favor tonight, the district championship will be theirs for the first time since 2022 when Juarez-Lincoln was a 6A school.