Heat Continue PDL Winning Streak, Host Chivas on Wednesday


The Laredo Heat Soccer Club did it.

After four futile attempts during last years' inaugural Premier Development League (PDL) season for the Heat, the club was finally able notch a win versus the defending Southern Conference Champion El Paso Patriots on Saturday night by a score of 3 - 2 in the Sun City and in the process, kept their PDL winning streak alive.

The Heat (4-0-0 / 12 points) opened the scoring up in the 7th minute of the match with a well placed ball from Ryan Harrison into the box area where Steve Su was able to knock it into the back of the Patriots (2-1-0 / 6 points) net to give Laredo a quick 1 nil advantage.

El Paso, being the championship caliber team they are, tied the game up in the 24th minute with a goal from former UNAM player Anuar Gomez and in the 45th minute, reigning PDL MVP Daniel Frias, known within the PDL for his uncanny ability to be around the goal, found a ball at his feet in added time of the 1st half and made sure that the Patriots went into the half with a 2 - 1 lead.

Much to the disappointment of the Patriots fans, that was all the offense their team would generate for the rest of the game. At the 63rd minute, Heat Midfielder Daniel Galvan received a perfectly placed pass from Hector "Gota" Vallejo to equalize the game at 2 - 2.

Soon after tying up the game, Laredo Heat Head Coach, Israel Collazo, was ejected from the game at the 65th minute due to discussing the hard play of the Patriots with the center referee. Collazo will serve a one game suspension for his action this coming Sunday the 28th when the Heat plays the DFW Tornados in Dallas.

The ejection of their coach galvanized the Heat and the team showed excellent chemistry and courage by sticking to the game plan implemented during halftime and in the 75th minute, the Galvan and Vallejo combination struck again when Vallejo received an assist from Galvan and streaked down the middle of the Patriot defense and outran two El Paso defenders to score the winning goal on Patriot goalkeeper Mario Cardiel.

The victory in El Paso for the Heat not only gave the Heat a 4 - 0 league record but gave the club a 3 - 0 mark and 9 points in U.S. Open Cup Qualifying Matches.

This coming Wednesday, May 24th, the Heat will be taking a break from PDL and Open Cup Qualifying action and will host an International Friendly Match against the Chivas de Guadalajara Special Reserve Team. This will be the second trip to Laredo for the Guadalajara based club in as many years. Heat CEO and owner, Shashi Vaswani, mentioned, "The team and administration is looking forward to hosting the Chivas this week and we invite all the soccer fans in Laredo to come out to the Student Activity Complex on Wednesday evening to show its support not only to the Heat or Chivas but for the beautiful game of soccer." Vaswani added, "As always, admission to the game is only $5.00 for adults and all children 12 and under get in free." Vaswani concluded, "With the Chivas Reserve Team in town and our Heat getting started 5 and 0, including our win versus the Reserve Team from the Monterrey Tigres, I can't see how Laredo soccer fans can't get excited to come watch a great game of soccer."

For additional information on the Laredo Heat Soccer Club and future game updates, please visit their web site at www.laredoheatsc.com .