HARLINGEN — Harlingen South scored early and often as the Lady Hawks fired nine goals against the Weslaco East Lady Wildcats on Friday evening at Boggus Stadium.
Alise Garza scored a hat trick, Caroline Grannum scored a brace and Klarissa Gonzalez, Lilian Villarreal, Bianca Martinez and Sandra Lopez all got on the scoreboard and led the Lady Hawks to a 9-1 victory.
With the win, Harlingen South keeps pace with Harlingen High for second place in District 32-6A.
“I very happy with the way everybody played tonight,” said Harlingen South head coach Omar Pedroza. “I’m happy I was able to bring in some girls and give them some playing time, and it’s always good to do that before the playoffs because you never know what can happen and I might need one of those girls to step in and play.
“Overall, we did well; our passing was good and we played well all the way around and the scores shows we did well.”
Sandra Lopez got the scoring started for Harlingen South within five minutes of starting the match. Lopez fired from 20 yards out and saw her shot sail over the goalkeeper into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later AliseGarza had an opportunity to double Harlingen South’s lead, but saw her goal called back for offsides. However, Garza would not be denied as two minutes following the call she got her first goal of the game after slotting a low shot past the Lady Wildcats’ keeper.
Up 2-0, South’s Caroline Grannum got behind a through ball and darted past the Weslaco East defense for her first goal with 13 minutes remaining in the first half to extend the Lady Hawks lead to 3-0.
Garza and Grannum found the back of the net three more times in the second half.
“I think tonight it was all about speed,” said Pedroza. “We had way more speed than they had and both Alise and Caroline took advantage of that tonight. It’s good when our forwards have chances and put them in. Sometimes you get chance after chance and you don’t score, but tonight was a different deal and pretty much everything we took a shot on we scored and it’s good going into the playoffs.”
Down 4-0 just before the half, Weslaco East’s Stephanie Ramirez carved one goal back for the Lady Wildcats. Ramirez curved her shot around the keeper and ricochet off the post before going in.
With one game remaining in the regular season and at 30 points a piece, both Harlingen South and Harlingen are vying for the second playoff seed.
On Monday the Lady Hawks are at BrownsvilleRivera while the Lady Cardinals host San Benito. Both games are at 10 a.m.
