CORPUS CHRISTI — Down four starters due to suspensions from an altercation Friday, Progreso knew they’d need a perfect gameplan if they wanted to get past Boerne.
For 72 minutes, Saturday’s regional championship match played out exactly how the Red Ants envisioned.
Then for a split moment everything went wrong.
An earned corner kick by Boerne turned into heartbreak for Progreso, with Brett Hettie heading in a cross by Shae Gonzales for the go-ahead goal as the Greyhounds ended the Red Ants season 1-0 in the Region IV-4A finals at Cabaniss Soccer Field in Corpus Christi.
“We knew what we were coming into after the players we had lost,” Progreso head coach Damian Magallan said. “The kids on the field played with their all though. We all worked hard.”
Playing against the wind during the opening period, the Red Ants played a counter-attack style against the Greyhounds, looking to defend hard and turn it into goal opportunities.
The game plan worked to perfection during the first half, bending defensively but never breaking en route to a 0-0 halftime score.
“After that first half I told myself we were in the perfect scenario,” Magallan said. “We did what we had to and kept them from scoring.”
The second half featured a different game plan by the Red Ants, going on the offensive and attacking the Boerne defense relentlessly.
The non-stop attack nearly yielded the result Progreso was looking for, with the Red Ants coming close to finding paydirt on multiple occasions during the second half. Still, nothing came out of it, with the Red Ants unable to convert any of their six second-half shots.
Then for a brief moment, a lapse in the Progreso defense resulted in the Greyhounds first and only shot attempt of the second period, with Boerne taking advantage of the situation and turning it into a state tournament berth.
“We played the game we wanted to play,” Magallan said. “They couldn’t really do anything outside of that one shot that turned into a goal. That’s soccer sometimes though. I’m proud of these kids because they left it all on the field.”
The victory extends Boerne’s winning streak to 22, sitting at 22-0-0 on the year. They’ll look to capture their third state title in four years during next week’s state tournament.
The Red Ants finish their season with a 27-2-2 mark, including a streak of 24 straight wins before today’s regional championship loss.
“This is a four-year project,” Magallan said. “I had six freshman who were starters this year. This loss doesn’t define us. I guarantee you we’ll be back here next year. We’re going to work harder this offseason to reach our goal. We couldn’t get it done this year, but remember this because we’ll be back next year.”
