Apaches advance to area round
MANOR — The phrase “history in the making” will surely be repeated these next few weeks for the Gonzales Apaches boys’ soccer team. Though it may get tiresome to hear the same phrase over again for a few folks, the Apaches won’t stop as they advance through the playoffs just like they did Thursday night against Little River Academy.
The Apaches played their first-ever playoff game on Thursday, beating out the Little River Academy Bumblebees 6-0 at Manor High School Stadium.
“I’m ecstatic,” Apaches’ head coach Greg Ramirez said of the win. “My mind’s blown away. We got very talented kids. We’re showing that we can do something with this group of kids.”
Now that the Apaches are in the playoffs, games have become a bit more difficult. Although they weren’t able to impose their will on the Bees early on, the Apaches kept pushing and finally found their first goal in the 8th minute.
John Bashaw took a shot on goal that was deflected and out for a corner. As José Flores took it, the ball bounced around and Little River Academy was unable to fully clear the ball, allowing Omar Velazquez a goal opportunity that he took advantage of. He hit the top cross bar and it bounced in for the Apaches first goal of the night at officially 8:10 into the match.
A little over a minute later, Santiago Escoto got into the box and headed the ball right over the goalkeeper to double the lead, giving the Apaches the 2-0 advantage. Despite these early goals, the Bumblebees found themselves in Gonzales’ territory early on and midway through the half.
Around the 33rd minute, Academy’s forward got open off a spin move and blasted the ball toward the net above Apaches’ goalkeeper Daniel Barrientos. Barrientos rose up and blocked the shot right at the top of the goal, giving him a big save in the half.
“That was a real big play because that would have changed the momentum if it would have went in,” Ramirez explained. “Daniel Barrientos has been working on a lot of ‘goal jumps’ as I call it in practice. In practice he gets here and he squats down and works on his ‘height’ because he’s so short, he has to work on his spring and that’s what he’s been doing.”
The keeper seemed to overcome his height as he got another clean sheet in Thursday’s win.
Meanwhile, later in the half at the 27th minute, the Apaches took advantage of another corner kick coming in from Flores. Flores found the head of Bashaw who bounced it in for a goal inside the box, giving the Apaches the 3-0 lead. Gonzales tried to add their fourth but time ran out before doing so.
With the three-goal lead, the Apaches were in search of more scores, this time with the new strategy at the start of the half. They held on to the ball around midfield, trying to find an opening rather than just pushing as they did the first half.
“That’s what we told them [at halftime],” Ramirez said, “hit the long ball, don’t find it yet? Work the middle. Then go back to the long ball until we get it in.”
The Apaches’ attack on Academy wore out the Bees, giving Gonzales more goal-scoring opportunities due to their conditioning.
“We kept on and kept until we got it,” Ramirez said. “We had to tire them out. If you’re not conditioned enough to stay with us, we’re going to tire you out. That’s one thing about our guys is we’re real conditioned. We’ll keep on trying that long ball until we get it.”
“We just kept on playing hard,” he continued. “It was nonstop playing. That’s what I feel like we did. They never gave up, they just kept on all 80 minutes playing hard.”
Hard work paid off again in the 51st minute.
Escoto dribbled deep into Bees’ territory and crossed the ball to the box. Bashaw couldn’t get to the ball but he let up, allowing Velazquez a clean shot at the goal. Velazquez finished, giving him his second of the night, and the Apaches 4-0 lead.
“We’ve been working a lot on our passing,” Ramirez said of the goal. “That’s what we’ve been doing is working a lot on our passing. So now it’s starting to come along together, our passing is starting to come along. We’re doing it more effectively.”
In the 63rd, Rogelio Sanchez finally got his goal after a few attempts early on. Sanchez stole a pass from the defense and kicked it past the keeper to go up 5-0. Late in the game he got his second, a long curling shot from around the 12-yard line to give what would the final score of 6-0.
The Apaches won the bi-district game and now advance to the area round where they will take on Bandera.
Both teams have met before this season, with the Apaches taking the 3-2 win during the Pleasanton Tournament.
“It was a real close game,” Ramirez recalled. “We’re just going to have to make sure that we stay on top of [our game]. They’re real fast in their forwards, their defense is strong, they move the ball real well so we’re going to have to really stay on our game when we face Bandera.”
The good news for the Apaches is they’ll get to play their game in front of a home crowd as the area matchup is set for kickoff this Friday at Apache Field.
“[I’m] very excited,” Ramirez exclaimed. “We’ve turned a lot of heads, everybody is focusing on the team now and the team is focused on the task they have to do in order to keep on going with this playoff run.”
Friday’s game is set to start at 7:15 p.m.
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