Comeback victory

SCHERTZ — It took them 65 minutes to finally get a goal in Tuesday’s regional quarterfinal game against Boerne. But once they scored the momentum shifted and as the Gonzales fans yelled “¡Otra! ¡Otra!” (Spanish for “Another!”) the boys’ soccer team did just that, scoring their second goal of the match six minutes later to put them up 2-1. The defense would hold on and the team celebrated the win, advancing them to the regional tournament.

“That was the most exciting game, my guys didn’t give up, they kept on going all the way till the end,” an emotional Greg Ramirez said after the game.

Ramirez, the head boys’ soccer coach, continued, saying “that’s what it takes. You got to fight until the finish and that’s what they did.”

“They could have easily just said ‘you know what, we’re done’ but they didn’t. They kept on going all the way.”

Early on the Apaches held possession as they tried finding openings and lanes in the first half. The Boerne Greyhounds had a few counters and came away with a corner but the Apaches’ defense, specifically their back four and goalkeeper Daniel Barrientos, held up. Unfortunately, a foul in the 24^th minute led to a free kick from Boerne’s Eric Ibarra Flores who netted a curling ball to put the Greyhounds up 1-0.

“They got that score early on,” Ramirez explained, “it was a fight to come back all the way through.”

The Apaches forwards would take shot after shot, including Rogelio Sanchez getting free near the 30^th minute where he’d shoot from close range but Boerne’s goalkeeper Mogens Briedé dove for a great save. Later, Sanchez was found open again and scored but was called offside, nullifying the goal.

In the second half, near the 45^th minute, Sanchez found José “Santiago” Escoto in the box open and one-on-one with the keeper for a goal-scoring opportunity. However, Escoto hesitated to pull the trigger and when he finally took his shot, Briedé got the save.

“Hesitation will kill you all the time,” Ramirez warned. “When we hesitate in soccer you just can’t do it. Your openings close up too fast and your chances go away.”

Later in the second half the physicality was turned up, as multiple players fell to ground with both teams maneuvering around to retain possession of the ball.

“It’s a physical game,” Ramirez explained. “Both teams are going to be physical and when you got two physical teams of course it’s going to look like they’re wrestling a little bit out there. Two physical teams tonight went at each other and that’s the kind of result you get.”

The officials let most of it go until midway through the second half when Boerne started to collect yellow cards. Gonzales, meanwhile, played aggressively gaining three corners and finding more openings in Boerne’s defense.

In the 65^th minute the Apaches turned it around with a lesson learned from earlier in the half. Escoto again got in the box but instead of hesitating, he faked the goalkeeper, switched his foot and scored the easy goal to tie the game 1-1.

“Santiago has a really good switch where he goes from his right to his left foot really quick,” Ramirez said, “and he’ll shoot with either foot so it doesn’t matter what side he’s going to go on and that’s the good thing about him.”

The momentum seemingly shifted as the Apaches pushed on with fans yelling “¡Otra!” from the stands.

“¡Otra!” came in the 71^st minute, with approximately 9:45 left in the game. Fabian Cardoza was out wide right and crossed it to the box where both Sanchez and Escoto dove their head toward the ball to get to the net. It was Sanchez’s head that found the ball and he drove it past the goalkeeper to put the Apaches up 2-1.

Now with the advantage, the Apaches defense held on as Boerne had to change their original game plan of playing passive and wasting time to trying to get a game-tying goal. However, Gonzales held up and time eventually ran out on the Greyhounds.

“Our defense just played phenomenally tonight,” Ramirez said. “[Boerne] scored that one on a free kick, that’s all it was. Other than that they couldn’t get through. But I tip my hat to Boerne, they’re an excellent team [that’s] well coached. To beat a team of that caliber says a lot about our team.”

The win now moves the Apaches to the regional tournament as four teams remain in Region IV-4A, 16 teams total in Class 4A. Ramirez knows that there is still work to be done to be ready for even tougher competition coming up.

“We just got to play our ball, our game,” Ramirez said. “There’s a couple of mistakes, little errors here and there but it’s something we’re going to work on to fix because we’re headed to McAllen.”

Their next game is today at noon against Progreso at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium. With a win they’ll face either Hidalgo or their district rivals in Giddings tomorrow at 10 a.m. The winner of that game will go on to the state tournament next week.