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McHi’s girls soccer team let out a deafening roar toward the rest of District 31-5A on Tuesday, claiming a 7-0 win over a usually difficult, now injury-riddled, McAllen Rowe to kick off the second half of district play at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The Bulldogs unleashed a furious flurry of second-half goals Monday, improving to 9-1 in district, that one loss coming to undefeated McAllen Memorial (9-0-1). And while in this district almost any team can pull off an upset, the Bulldogs and Mustangs have shown they are clearly the top two teams to contend with.
McAllen Memorial claimed a 9-0 victory over PSJA North on Tuesday and defeated McHi 4-3 during the first time through district. They meet against at 6 p.m. next Tuesday at McHi.
“We still have PSJA North to focus on first, but then that game is for the district championship,” McHi head coach Patrick Arney said. “If Memorial wins, it’s pretty much over but the crying. If we win, we’ll still have work but at least it puts us in the driver’s seat.”
Memorial defeated Rowe in penalty kicks earlier, giving the Mustangs just two of the three allotted points for winning a match in regulation. That gives Memorial its current two-point lead over McHi.
McHi and Memorial have scored 63 goals each thus far this season, 126 total. Going into Tuesday’s games, the rest of the eight teams in district — combine — had scored 134, just eight more than the district juggernauts.
Defensively they have given up 15 goals combined — six for McHi and nine for Memorial. Only one other team in the 10-team district had given up fewer than 15 goals after Tuesday’s games was Sharyland, with 11. Rowe had given up just 15 prior to Tuesday’s match.
The Bulldogs held a 2-0 lead at the half, with the wind at their backs. Julianna Millin scored three goals, including an unassisted goal with 32:30 remaining in the first half. Savannah Ruiz followed up after missing an opportunity and popped in a beautiful header in front of the goal on a deft touch pass from Emmory Henderson for a 2-0 advantage.
Millin, a junior, has 117 career goals. The McHi record is 122 by Megan Ochoa. The Valley girls record is 186 goals by Sharyland High’s Xochitl Nguma, set in 2020.
Ruiz scored a pair of goals for the Bulldogs and had one assist for McHi. The assist came like so many of McHi’s goals during the past year, from a Ruiz corner kick, and Millin found a perfect spot with a leaping header that had Arney calling her “Air Jules.” It’s a somewhat appropriate name considering how high she got into the air and how often she scores.
Lola Alvarado and Camille Diaz also scored for the Bulldogs, the first during a scrum in front of the net and Diaz with a laser into the side.
“There was nothing anybody from Rowe could’ve done with that shot,” Arney said. “(Alvarado and Diaz) are coming into their own when we need them. They are getting that confidence. Cami is really starting to shoot and they help put us in a position to be able to move things around, and maybe give Memorial a different look when we see them again.”
