For the first time in five years, the Laredo Heat competed in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup as the club began cup play Tuesday at the Texas A&M International Soccer Complex against the Brazos Valley Cavalry FC.

Like its first U.S. Open Cup run in 2014, Laredo — representing the National Premier Soccer League — was able to advance to the second round of the tournament as Francois Sakou converted a penalty kick attempt in 60th minute after Brazos Valley received a yellow card in the box. With the win, head coach Aidan Davison opens his tenure with Laredo 1-0.

“It’s like any game, you can dissect it. Yet at the end of the day it is about winning,” Davison said. “It’s cup competition, so you have to win to go through. We won. Some of it was good, some not so good and some ugly. You can’t argue with the way we stuck with the task and our energy levels. We did exactly what we were supposed to do. It’s always nice to win.”

In 2014, the organization made it all the way to the fourth round and faced a Major League Soccer opponent in the Houston Dynamo. Laredo gave Houston a scare in that game only losing 1-0.

This was the first meeting between the two clubs who are both affiliated with the Dynamo. Brazos Valley is Houston’s USL League 2 affiliate while Laredo’s youth program is a partner with the Dynamo Youth Academy.

The Cavalry were given four yellow cards including a red as Ivan Leon received two yellows. All of Brazos Valley’s cards were given in the second half. The Heat also received a red card as Jose Luis Hincapie received his second yellow in the 76th minute. Both teams played with 10 men for the last 15-plus minutes.

The Heat opened the match with immense pressure. Laredo dominated the pace of play through the opening 10 minutes. The Heat had several early chances to convert but every shot went wide or over the net.

As the first half wore down, so did Laredo’s positioning. Brazos Valley was close to breaking the scoreless tie in the 30th minute as it had a wide open chip shot. However, the Cavalry player had too hard of a touch and the shot went high.

The Heat opened the second half again with immense pressure. While Laredo got on board thanks to a PK attempt, it did have chances to score before and even after that. Yet, all of the Heat’s shots were off target or redirected by the Brazos Valley goalkeeper.

“Detail is critical,” Davison said. “Some of the detail was missing tonight. But, again, plus to our energy levels and we stuck to the task at hand. You can’t always play pretty futbol.

“We created a lot of chances tonight, but we just didn’t capitalize on them.”

The Heat will focus on improving the final third of their game once they return to the practice pitch later this week.

The Heat are one of 14 NPSL teams that will participate in this year’s cup. The other 13 NPSL teams competing in this year’s field are AFC Ann Arbor, Duluth FC, El Farolito, Erie Commodores FC, FC Baltimore, FC Motown, FCM Portland, Little Rock Rangers, Miami FC, Midland-Odessa Shockers, New York Cosmos B, Orange County FC and Philadelphia Lone Star FC.

The U.S. Open Cup — the United States soccer national championship — is in its 106th year. It has crowned a champion annually since 1914. The tournament is conducted on a single-game knockout basis and is open to all professional and amateur teams associated with U.S. Soccer.

“You want to go on an Open Cup run,” Davison said. “The Vaswani family has put a lot of time into this and a lot of money. So we want to do as well as we can for them and everyone who is supporting us. It’s a family here. We want to do well for the community and represent it well.”

With the win, the Heat’s second-round matchup will be next Tuesday against San Antonio FC at Toyota Field in San Antonio. Then a few days later, Laredo opens the NPSL regular season at 8 p.m. May 18 against the Tyler FC Kings at home.

gkroeger@lmtonline.com

Twitter: @gkroegs