By Brian Argabright
Del Rio’s historic run in the boys soccer playoffs is over.
The Rams were unable to find a solution for Laredo Alexander’s tenacious defense and crisp passing and suffered a 4-0 loss Saturday in the Class 6A, Region IV Quarterfinals at Dub Farris Stadium in San Antonio.
It was Alexander’s first win against the Rams this season after a regulation draw and a 4-3 loss at Laredo.
Del Rio found itself behind early in the match and was down 2-0 by halftime. Alexander scored two more goals late in the second half to put the match away for good.
“I think we made some early mistakes that the other team capitalized on and it forced us to make some adjustments and take a few more risks. In the playoffs if you make a mistake I can be tough to come back,” Rams head coach Tani Canchola said. “Also, I think that as a team we didn’t have a great game. Sometimes you have a good game, a good passing game, but we weren’t connecting as well. That made a difference. There was also a little bit of nervousness in the beginning and things didn’t go our way.”
“You have to give a lot of credit to Alexander. Honestly, they stepped up their game and played very aggressive game against us and we had trouble adjusting to that,” Canchola added.
After the first two rounds of the playoffs, 30-6A still had three teams standing in Del Rio, Alexander and Laredo United. United fell to Harlan Friday, 3-1, leaving Alexander as the last team from the district headed into the state’s Sweet 16.
“We, as coaches, have talked about how tough this district is. When we met to vote for all-district, we said to each other, ‘We’ll see you in the playoffs,’ because we know how tough it was in our season. Everyone beats everyone, and our district is getting tougher and tougher, so it prepares us for our playoff games,” Canchola said. “It’s a good thing that the Laredo district is coming up and getting stronger. Alexander is representing us in the next round and they’re a class act team.”
The Rams made history this season by advancing to the third round of the playoffs for the first time in the program’s history. This after a district schedule that saw Del Rio play a minimum of three matches a week after starting conference play later than the rest of 30-6A due to the San Felipe Del Rio CISD’s self-imposed suspension of play out of concern for the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
In Del Rio’s final week of regulation play, the Rams played four matches in five days, winning all four and going from third to a tie for the district championship with Laredo United.
“We knew that we had a team that could compete when it was firing on all cylinders. We also knew we were happy to play games during the season, so every game meant something to our seniors. They didn’t want to stop playing, but we never knew if the next game would be the last game due to the season being canceled because of COVID again. We told them to just keep playing and eventually we found ourselves in excellent position in the standings,” Canchola said. “They started to believe that they were better than they initially thought. We had a small team, not a lot of substitutes on bench, and we didn’t have many injuries, so our starters played the majority of the games. It just kept building into something.”
The Rams lose 10 seniors to graduation, but those players can leave the program knowing they helped to make history and leave a legacy for future teams to follow. Canchola said that could only help the future of the program.
“To get to the third round … it was a big mental barrier they had to overcome. Now that we’ve done it, future teams can say, ‘We can do this,’ and this is a good thing because it makes it easier for future soccer teams because we have been here before. It means a lot that we came this far and were able to accomplish something after a season that had such a difficult start,” Canchola said.
