Sam Houston’s late goal wins showdown with Arlington

By Mark Wright

Special to the Star-Telegram

ARLINGTON — Mark Hernandez sailed a shot inside the left post and a celebration ensued.

The Arlington Sam Houston senior broke a 1-1 tie with his goal in the 80th minute to lift the Texans to a 2-1 victory Friday night against Arlington at Wilemon Field in a matchup of the top two teams in District 3-5A.

“It felt good — very exciting afterward,” Hernandez said. “It’s a whole team effort. We all work together, we all play together.”

Sam Houston (13-1-1, 11-0 district) peppered Arlington goalkeeper Cristian Vega with a flurry of shots in the second half. But a late corner kick came up empty.

The Colts (11-6-3, 8-3) cleared the ball. Sam Houston, however, quickly regained possession. Hernandez got back onsides, received a pass from Sammy Mata and scored the game-winner.

The Texans had 14 shots on goal, but went nearly 58 minutes of game action between scores. Vega’s play in net was one of the reasons. The goalkeeper stopped nine Sam Houston shots.

“It just takes one,” Texans coach Joey Rodriguez said of the late goal. “I’m just thankful we were able to get that one. Mark stayed with the play. When they cleared the ball, he just stayed onsides and he just kept with it, and we served him a great ball in. And he was able to finish.”

Arlington, which entered the game hoping to gain ground on the district leader, nearly forced a shootout. The Colts had only three shots against Sam Houston goalkeeper Oscar Rodriguez. But Luis Garcia made his shot count.

The Colts knotted the scored at 1 in the 26th minute on a corner kick. Reggie Gonzalez sent a kick toward Garcia that he headed in.

Sam Houston took a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute. Senior forward T.J. Marino broke free on the far left side and drilled a shot into the bottom left side of the net from 25 yards out.

“This is probably the best game we’ve played so far,” said Oscar Rodriguez, who had two saves. “We did what we had to do tonight.”

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