Unbeaten Heat at Austin for back-to-back games
By NINO CARDENAS, LAREDO MORNING TIMES
06/16/2006
There’s no time to ponder on Wednesday’s loss to Roma FC and there is no time to rest the weary legs for the Laredo Heat.After 120 minutes of play Wednesday in their penalty loss to the Wolves in Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup play, the Heat must get ready to travel.
The Heat returns to Premier Development League action tonight for the first of two games against the Austin Lightning (2-4, 6 points) at the State Capitol.
“We just have to assimilate the loss to Roma and move on. It’s time to focus on Austin,” Heat forward Hector “La Gota” Vallejo said in Spanish immediately following the loss.
Laredo plays the Lightning tonight and Saturday, as they look to pad their Mid-South division leading point total.
At 7-0 and 21 points Laredo leads second place Dallas Tornados by nine points.
The Lightning, El Paso and New Orleans round up the bottom rung with six points apiece.
Sweeping the Lighting will edge the team closer to clinching a berth in the playoffs midway through the season.
The mood was a bit somber after the game, but the Laredo players immediately shifted their focus to winning the Southern conference title.
“As soon as the Roma game was over all players were talking about was this weekend’s games. We are going to take out our frustrations on them and show what happened was a one time thing,” towering goalkeeper Ryan Shaughnessy said.
The border city team defeated Austin in its two earlier encounters.
The strategy for the game isn’t a secret, Austin knows that Laredo is going to try and dictate the action as soon as the whistle blows.
So far the Heat’s aggressive nature has netted them 20 goals on the season. The scoring is spread evenly across the team, leaving no one man that the Austin should focus on. Dallas and Austin follow with 12 goals scored on the season.
They opened the season with a 4-3 win and a 3-1 victory a couple of weeks later. Both were at the Student Activity Complex.
Laredo has won its only two road games of the season.
The Heat’s next home game is July 1 in the last meeting of the season against the Lightning.
©Laredo Morning Times 2006
©Laredo Morning Times 2006
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