DONNA — Juarez-Lincoln’s Omar Solis netted a second-half brace and the Huskies ran past the Donna North Chiefs 3-0 during a Class 5A area round match Saturday at Bennie La Prade Stadium in Donna.
The victory sends the Huskies into the Region IV-5A quarterfinals for a second straight season. They’ll take on Flour Bluff for a spot in next weekend’s regional tournament at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Hornet Stadium in Corpus Christi.
“We feel good after this one,” La Joya Juarez-Lincoln head coach Victor Ramos said. “We knew Donna North had been strong all year. We had to come in and play them at their house, so we knew we had to be 100% concentrated. The kids did just that.”
For nearly 30 minute the Huskies and Chiefs played to a stalemate, with neither team able to find an advantage.
That changed during the 27th minute, with the Huskies earning a corner kick off a deflection by the Chiefs.
Juarez-Lincoln made the most of the set piece, with Steven Martinez heading in a crossing ball from Christian Torres for the first goal of the night.
Martinez’s goal opened the floodgates for the Huskies during the second half, with Juarez-Lincoln needing only four minutes to find paydirt again, this time coming off the left foot of Omar Solis.
Solis was only getting started, adding his second goal of the half just eight minutes later, beating the Donna North defense before hammering the ball past the goalkeeper to make it 3-0 with 28 minutes remaining.
“I had missed one earlier, but I kept going and I ended up scoring two,” Solis said. “It was a great game. I did my best and me and my teammates really came together, and the result came out in our favor.”
With the lead well in hand, the Huskies moved away from an attacking offense and focused on shutting down the Chiefs, holding on for the 3-0 victory.
The loss ends the Chiefs season in the area round once again, still unable to get past the second-round hump since starting play in 2014.
Meanwhile, the Huskies are set to play their third straight road contest of the playoffs, returning to the regional quarterfinals after losing to Brownsville Lopez in the same round last year.
“We know that the regional tournament and state tournament is always on the road,” Ramos said. “It doesn’t bother us going on the road and getting used to that. I think right now the kids are playing their best. Last year we played a close game against Lopez. It served a lot as a learning experience. Now we’re back there. We just have to fix those errors this time around.”
