By Brian Argabright
History was made Tuesday night in Laredo.
For the first time in the program’s history, the Del Rio Rams soccer team advanced to the third round of the state playoffs. They did so by defeating La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, 3-0, at the Student Activity Center in Laredo Tuesday night.
The furthest any Rams team had ever advanced prior to this season was the Area round, a mark last achieved by the 2014-15 team that beat La Joya Palmview in the Bi-District round, 3-1, but then lost to eventual state champions Brownsville Rivera in the Area round, 3-1.
In all, the Rams have made it to the Area round of the playoffs seven times since boys soccer was introduced at Del Rio High School in the 1994-95 school year. Six times the Rams’ season ended there, but this year Del Rio is off to the third round of the boys soccer playoffs, and awaiting them is a familiar foe.
The Rams now advance to the Class 6A, Region IV Quarterfinals where they will face the Laredo Alexander Bulldogs for the right to advance to the regional tournament.
The time and place for the third round meeting had not been announced as of press time, but Del Rio is 2-0 against Alexander this season. They beat the Bulldogs in a shootout in their first meeting after reaching a 2-2 draw at the end of regulation, and then beat them 4-3 in their second meeting which saw the Rams score three goals after being down 2-1 at halftime.
That sweep of the Bulldogs helped propel the Rams to a share of the District 30-6A championship. Del Rio entered the playoffs as the number two seed due to losing to Laredo United and Alexander finished the season as the number three seed.
After a scoreless first half against La Joya, Del Rio exploded for three goals in the second half.
Angel Aldrete started things off with a header off a Noe Trujillo assist to make it 1-0.
Aldrete soon followed with his second goal, and Luis Estrada iced the win with a goal of his own to make the final 3-0.
