Heat makes it two in a row; tops New Orleans
By: NINO CARDENAS, LAREDO MORNING TIMES
04/29/2006
The Laredo Heat is taking care of business at home as they defeated the New Orleans Shell Shockers 4-2 Saturday night in front of 738 fans at the Student Activity Complex.
Laredo has picked up six points with their second win and look to keep their home record spotless when they take on the Dallas Tornados next week.
"It's our obligation to win every match here at home," Heat head coach Israel Collazo said.
Flashbacks of their first game against the Austin Lightning came storming back for the Heat's Collazo.
Against Austin, Laredo let a 3-1 lead slip away before winning 4-3. Saturday night, Laredo had a 2-0 lead in the first half that lasted a total of three minutes.
New Orleans took advantage of two free kicks in the 22 and 23 minutes to storm back and tie the game at 2-2.
"To be honest, I did think back about the Austin game" Collazo responded about the Shell Shockers' comeback. "Hopefully that question won't come up again next week. In a short amount of time we had some lapses in the defense. We are going to work hard this week on free kicks" a relieved Collazo noted.
The Heat's Daniel Galvan opened up the scoring with a 25-yard laser, which surprised New Orleans goalie Fred Mince, Vallejo got the assist.
The second goal came as the Shell Shockers were arguing a no offside call. The Heat's Jesus Sanchez played on and found a wide open Ernesto Contreras for the 2-0 lead.
New Orleans tied the game on two well-placed headers.
The first by Austin Gunning, who headed the ball as it bounced off the Heat wall of players.
Less than a minute later Nestor Peralta-Cato tied the game with a strong header that got past Ryan Shaugnessy.
A scuffle in the first half resulted in two ejection's for both sides.
The Heat's Ryan Harrison and New Orleans P.J. Kee were expelled in the 37-minute.
In the second half Steve Su scored the winning goal, as Vallejo recorded his second assist.
Laredo added to the lead in the 85 minutes with a point blank shot by Sanchez, assisted by Nicho Infante.
Vallejo joined the team this past week and immediately contributed to the team finishing with five shots on goal and two assists.
©Laredo Morning Times 2006
