DONNA — McAllen Memorial freshman sensation Chloey Mejia and senior captain Bethany Garr normally handle the scoring for the Mustangs, finishing district play with 25 and 15 goals, respectively.
On Thursday, however, the duo took a backseat to McAllen Memorial forward Madisyn Sosa.
Sosa stole the spotlight with a dominant offensive performance, recording a hat trick and three assists to lead the Mustangs past Donna High 8-0 during a Region IV-4A bi-district contest Thursday at Bennie La Prade Stadium.
The victory advances the Mustangs to the Region IV-5A area round. They’ll take on the Corpus Christi Flour Bluff Hornets, who defeated the Mission Veterans Patriots 4-0 in the bi-district round Thursday, at a date, time and location to be determined.
“For me personally, I didn’t think I was going to have this outcome that I had today,” Sosa said. “I kind of just went in it with a mindset to play as hard as I can and try my hardest. It felt pretty good because I haven’t had a performance like this in a while. It felt good to get out of my shell again.”
Sosa’s offensive outburst gives defenses another weapon to worry about in the postseason, with the Mustangs already fielding two of the Valley’s top district goal scorers in Mejia and Garr.
Garr scored the game’s second goal, using fancy footwork to lose the defense and put the ball into the bottom right corner of the net during the sixth minute.
Also in the mix is Sophia Alaniz-Choy, who serves as the team’s enforcer in the middle of the field. Alaniz-Choy showed off her offensively capability Thursday, netting a pair of goals from more than 30 yards out during the 27th and 30th minute.
“It’s encouraging and gives you a lot of confidence that you’ll have chances to score when you have more than one player that can get the job done,” Kaiser said. “As a coach, I feel blessed. Like I said, you always feel like you’ll be in the game, get looks and hopefully find the back of the net.”
Defensively, the Mustangs were just as dominant, controlling possession for a majority of the game, while holding Donna High’s starting striker Madalyn Park scoreless after netting 19 goals during district play.
“Madalyn Park is a great player,” Kaiser said. “We were worried about her. But our defense came in and shut her down. It’s nice for the offensive players when they can focus on just playing offense. They’ve got confidence in their defense and we have confidence in the defense that they can keep the ball up field and give our offense chance after chance.”
The Mustangs didn’t take long to show off their offensive prowess, scoring four goals during the first 20 minutes of the contest, with Sosa accounting for three. McAllen Memorial added another pair of goals during the second half on assists from Sosa.
“Our team’s connection has definitely gotten better throughout the season,” Sosa said. “We have kept on working for it. It’s just coming together really well. We’ve put it together.
“Our mindset in the next round is to not go in with too big of a head or too confident. Obviously, we’re going to celebrate tonight while we can. Then we’re going to get back to work and continue doing what we’re doing.”
