By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
Del Rio and Laredo Alexander won’t have a third meeting in the playoffs this year.
Holding a 2-0 lead, the Rams allowed Harlingen to score three straight goals and saw their season come to an end Tuesday night in Laredo in the Area round of the Class 6A Boys Soccer Playoffs.
Harlingen will next face Brownsville Rivera in the Regional Quarterfinals. Alexander is the sole team remaining from 30-6A after beating Edinburg, 2-0. The Bulldogs will next face Harlen in the third round.
The Rams posted both of their goals in the first half of play.
Alfain Peñaloza, Del Rio’s leading goal scorer, put the Rams ahead 1-0 after an Ely Losoya header dropped behind a pair of Harlingen defenders and right onto Peñaloza’s foot. The speedster raced towards the goal and fired a booming shot that the Harlingen goalie deflected only to have the ball skip over his head and into the goal.
Peñaloza’s second goal came off a penalty kick. Adrian Ramos sent a free kick barreling toward the goal, sending Peñaloza in pursuit, but the Del Rio striker was taken down in the box to earn a penalty kick. Peñaloza took aim and buried the shot in the bottom left of the goal to stake the Rams to a 2-0 lead halfway through the first half.
With less than a minute to go in the half, the Rams were called for penalty inside the box when a Harlingen player was knocked down on the play. The Cardinals’ Jerry Martinez just beat Del Rio’s goalie to the left side of the goal to cut the Rams’ lead to 2-1 with about 20 seconds to play in the first half.
Harlingen tied the match with about 34 minutes to play when Del Rio couldn’t corral a Cardinals shot and Randy Morales swooped in to poke it into the goal to knot things up at 2-2.
Harlingen took the lead with just over four minutes to play when a shot on goal looked as though it would be swallowed up by the Rams goalie, but Chris Cantu was able to race in and chip it into the goal to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.
The Rams’ last chance to score came with about two minutes to play as Del Rio put a run on goal together, but they were called for being offside to kill the threat.
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