Heat Beats Austin Lightning

By NINO CARDENAS
LAREDO MORNING TIMES


The Laredo Heat and Sarena got their wish Saturday night at the Student Activity Center.
The Heat earned its first official win in the Premier Development League with a 3-0 decision over the Austin Lightning.
As for young Sarena, she will be visiting Cinderella and friends on June 10 thanks to the Make-A-Wish foundation and the Laredo Heat.
A Heat promotion helped collect funds for Sarena's trip.
"We played well, there are some things we need to work on. We are not going to get comfortable. There are a lot of games left and the next one is going to be tough since we are going out of town," Heat head coach Eleazar "E.J." Jepsen said.

The Heat travels to Dallas to take on the Tornados Friday night. The Laredo Heat, who played a provisional PDL schedule last year, wasted no time in finding the weakness in Austin's defense, as they concentrated most of their attacks against the Lightning's right side.
The strategy proved fruitful as Laredo collected three goals in the opening 45 minutes. Jerrod Idle, the former TAMIU player, goes down as the Heat's first goal scorer in the PDL.
In the 12th minute Idle found himself at the right place at the right time as he headed home a rebound off a corner for the early 1-0 lead. In the 19th minute the Heat was awarded a penalty kick that Juan de Dios Ibarra finished off.

Laredo continued to push forward and found its third goal in the 42nd minute. Ryan Harrison, another player out of TAMIU, found Nicho Infante inside the box. Infante proceeded to knock in a roller past Austin goalie Arnold Anthony. Infante got a goal wiped out in the closing minutes of the first half due to an offside call.

Laredo sat on the 3-0 lead for the rest of the way. Austin had its scoring opportunities but just couldn't manage to find the back of the net.
"The first half was great we set the tempo and pace, Austin wasn't expecting what we did. The second half was totally different, we have to keep it going," Jepsen said.
In a move to get the team used to each other Jepsen did not use a single substitution.
"I did no subs in the second half, the team has to get used to that. In this league you don't sub just to sub. Subs will take place if someone is hurt or if someone isn't performing as he can," Jepsen said.
The Heat and the Lightning finished with 13 shots apiece. The game was littered with yellow cards as the Heat finished with three and Austin had four.