By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
It took a while for the Queens soccer team to get going Tuesday night, but once they did there was no stopping them.
Del Rio scored five goals in the second half to roll to a 7-0 win over the Laredo LBJ Lady Wolves in front of the home fans at Walter Levermann Ram Stadium.
The win keeps the Queens atop the District 30-6A girls soccer standings. It was also Del Rio’s fifth consecutive shutout victory.
Del Rio had its chances early on. Gisselle Castañeda and Kayla Celedon made runs on the LBJ goal, but the Lady Wolves goalkeeper was up to the task as she and her fellow LBJ defenders kept Del Rio out of the goal.
Queens head coach Wilber Rivas made a switch to try and find a way to break the scoreless drought and the move paid off as Castañeda made a run up the near side of the field and then crossed the ball to Laurie Ignacio, who had entered the game as a sub. Ignacio took the shot and find the net for a 1-0 lead with 11:43 left in the first half.
The score remained 1-0 until the closing moments of the half when Castañeda was fouled in the box by an unsafe tackle from an LBJ defender. Del Rio was awarded a penalty kick, but Castañeda had to be helped off the field with a lower leg injury. She would not return.
Cassandra Ochoa took the ensuing penalty kick and blew it past the Laredo LBJ goalie for a 2-0 lead at halftime.
The second half saw LBJ take a more aggressive approach as they tried to cut into the Queens’ lead, but Del Rio’s defenders, led by Alexis Segura and goalie Zoey Ortiz, kept the Lady Wolves off the scoreboard.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, Del Rio’s broke loose with the first of its five second-half goals.
Jadyn Casillas scored Del Rio’s third goal as she was in the right place at the right time and scored on a put back goal off a ball that was initially stopped by the LBJ goalie.
Two minutes later, Ochoa had her second goal of the match as she scored in almost a similar fashion as Casillas to make it 4-0 Del Rio.
Ten minutes later, Casillas had her second goal as she received a pass from Andrea Sauceda and buried a line drive into the net just below the crossbar to increase Del Rio’s lead to 5-0.
About two minutes later, Ochoa had the hat trick when Alondra Sanchez delivered a perfect pass to the far side of the goal where Ochoa dropped it into the goal for a 6-0 Del Rio lead.
Sanchez capped Del Rio’s score on the night when she fired a rocket towards the LBJ goal. It deflected off an LBJ defender and into the goal with 17 seconds left to lift Del Rio to the 7-0 win.
Del Rio will travel to Laredo Saturday to face United in a game that was rescheduled due to Friday’s Border Olympics track and field meet.
The Queens’ next home match will be Tuesday, March 8, when Del Rio hosts Laredo Nixon at 6:30 p.m.
—
Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
