Dragons soar to win behind Flores’ 2 goals
Southwest senior Ramiro Flores said his main goal coming into the season was to advance past the fourth round of the playoffs, but that came with anxiety.
The Dragons have never advanced past the regional round.
“We've been having that goal for many years,” Flores said. “I feel a little pressure because this is my last year, and I really want to get over that hump.”
In the first 25 seconds of the Class 5A regional quarterfinals, Flores helped unleash his stored energy by scoring a goal. He hit a “dab” dance move after scoring and celebrated with his teammates.
Flores scored two goals to help the Dragons beat Macarthur 5-2 on Tuesday evening. In its first three playoff games, Southwest (22-2-1) has outscored its opponents by 15 goals.
“He's been our leader all year long,” Southwest boys soccer coach Juan Romero said. “A lot of people underestimate him because he doesn't have the flashiness that other players have, but he's the leader of this team. He's the heart and soul of this team.”
Southwest's Santiago Delgadillo scored a goal with 30:44 left in the first half. Flores knocked in a header to help the Dragons take a 3-0 lead heading into halftime at Farris Stadium.
“Today was for us to come out and set the tone from the beginning,” Romero said. “And I
think the boys did that with scoring a goal in the first minute of the game.”
Southwest started slow in the second half as they played into the wind after flipping sides. But Southwest's Santiago Rangel scored a goal from about 15 yards out, and Caleb Barajas hit
on a 25-yard goal to give the Dragons a 5-0 lead late in the second half.
Barajas had missed his first three shots at the goal in the first half.
“Scoring a goal finally, instead of missing all them shots,” Barajas said. “… From
last year, I never played with as much confidence. So this year, I'm trying to just play how I play.”
But Macarthur didn't give up even though it was down 5-0. In the final 13 minutes of the game, Macarthur's Jared Garibay and Aaron Villanueva scored goals to help cut the Southwest lead to 5-2.
It was the 35th goal of the season for Garibay, who entered Tuesday's game tied with Johnson's Diego Robles for the season lead among San Antonioarea boys soccer players. Johnson beat Austin Westlake 2-1 on Tuesday night.
“We started off pretty well, and then I thought Macarthur did a great job of keeping their composure and trying to fight back into the game,” Romero said. “I think we kind of dropped our intensity a little bit, looking forward to the regional tournament. We can't have that happen, and we got to be able to keep our intensity for 80 minutes.”
Last year, Southwest lost 2-0 to Mission Sharyland in the regional semifinals. Romero said the team wasn't ready.
“They were a little shellshocked, and we got a lot of boys returning this year, so you can tell that these boys are ready for it,” Romero said.
Southwest will face Brownsville Lopez at Brownsville Sports Park after the Lobos beat Brownsville Veterans Memorial 1-0 on Tuesday in the regional semifinals.
“We know for them it's going to be a home game,” Romero said. “Fortunately, we've had three road games this year so far. Hopefully, that kind of helps our mentality going down there. Again, the key is going to be if we can set the tone (and) if we can keep the intensity. If we do that, I think it will be OK.”