It’s difficult to apply the must-win label to any game prior to the halfway point of the season, but the Laredo Heat SC will shape the race for the No. 1 seed in the Lone Star Conference on Thursday as they face an unbeaten opponent for the second straight match traveling for a 7:30 p.m. meeting with the Midland-Odessa Sockers FC.

“They are one of the top teams if not the top team,” Laredo Heat SC head coach John Powell said. “They are a class organization. They are properly run, and they are hospitable in how they treat us in our travel, but also on the pitch they are a handful right now. They are taking points almost at will. It is our job to go in there and change that.”

The Heat (2-1-1, 7 points) are coming off a two-week break and also play on the road Saturday against the Fort Worth Vaqueros. However, for now they only have eyes for the Sockers (4-0-2, 14 points).

“I am biased. I think we have the better team going into Midland,” Laredo Heat SC President Shashi Vaswani said. “I love those guys and their organization, but at the end of the day we have to prove we’re the better team. We can’t do that without scoring goals and winning the match. Right now the focus is not on both games; it is on Midland itself. We need to take care of business there. It is a very important game for both sides. It could mean them pulling away from the pack or us really fighting for a top spot in our conference.”

“These are the trips that you prepare for all season,” Powell said. “The players are college players so they are used to that type of stuff. We know it is just one game at a time. Saturday does not exist until we take care of business on Thursday.”

In its second straight match against an unbeaten opponent, Laredo is aiming to replicate the success of the last time out when they took down the Denton Diablos FC (4-1-1, 13 points) with a 3-2 win as they fended off a late comeback attempt which included a goal in the 90th minute.

Heat captain Erwin Regules made his first start of the season and helped set up each of the first two goals off his corner kicks, both of which were scored by Nadav Datner who leads the club with five of its nine goals. Gabriel Gacovicaj had one assist and scored what proved to be the winning goal.

Thursday will be a homecoming for Regules as he played for the Sockers in the 2019 National Premier Soccer League season.

“I move on quick with life, so now that I’m here with Laredo I only have thanks and kind regards for Midland, but other than that I want to beat them,” Regules said. “I want to win and take those three points in any way possible.”

Following the big win over Denton, the Heat had a lengthy break with two weeks between matches. They capitalized on the available time with a mix of time off and aggressive training.

“The boys handled it extremely well,” Powell said. “They were given a few days off and were able to see some family, get some studies done and rest their bodies. We have worked them extremely hard since then. They are as ready as they could be to travel and take care of business Thursday night.”

While the roster is drastically different on each side, Thursday will serve as somewhat of a tiebreaker between the clubs. Laredo swept their two matches in 2018, and the Sockers returned the favor in 2019. More importantly, a win would allow the Heat to maintain control of their destiny in the push for the No. 1 seed in the conference and the right to host in the postseason.

While it has picked up points in all six matches this season, Midland-Odessa has gone down to the wire every time out. Three of its four wins were decided by one goal including last week’s 1-0 win over Fort Worth (0-5-1, 1 point). The lone outlier was a 2-0 victory over Coyotes FC (2-4-0, 6 points) on May 30. The Sockers have not scored more than two goals in a match, but they also haven’t allowed more than two goals. The Heat have surpassed that total in half their games.

“Coming off the three points at home and Midland taking care of every game, we have to go there and get three points,” Laredo Heat vice captain and defender Lewis Wilson said. “They are a good team, so we need to do what we know we can do. We have to show quality in the final third, and we have to keep them out of the box.”

The Heat face a quick turnaround as they travel Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. game against Fort Worth. The reigning conference champions have had a rough start to the season, but they have upped their play in the past two matches. The Vaqueros had a 1-1 draw with Irving FC (2-3-1, 7 points) on June 9 before their 1-0 loss to the Sockers. The first four games were more of a struggle as they were outscored a combined 19-7.

“Obviously you can’t write any team off,” Wilson said. “Every team in this conference is quality. It is not a lot of time to prepare for the game, but that’s just like college. All of us here still play college, so we’re going to be used to it.”

Visit youtube.com/LaredoHeatSC to view the live stream of the game.