The Laredo Heat SC expressed great appreciation for its fan base after being announced this weekend as the winner of the Best Sports Team in the Laredo Morning Times 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards.

“We can’t thank the fans enough for showing their support and earning us this great honor,” Laredo Heat SC President Shashi Vaswani said. “One of our goals is to always provide the community with a winning soccer team featuring an exciting style of play. To have that dedication returned by the fans is humbling. We thank everyone who continues to show us great support, and we invite everyone to come out to our games and add to our already vibrant atmosphere.”

The support of the fans has contributed to Laredo’s strong performance so far in the 2022 National Premier Soccer League season. The Heat are alone in first place in the Lone Star Conference at 7-1-1 after sweeping a two-game road trip in North Texas last week beating the Denton Diablos FC 3-1 on Thursday and winning 1-0 Saturday over the Fort Worth Vaqueros FC.

While the Heat have performed well on the road going 3-1-1, they have excelled at home in front of the local fans with a perfect 4-0-0 record.

“It is humbling. I feel really grateful for their support,” Heat head coach John Powell said. “Our fans are so good here at home, and they follow us when we’re on the road. We have a following that is really unique to the NPSL. It’s a great honor. We want that type of award. We are very grateful. We know we have the best fans out supporting us, and we want to back it up. We want to give them not only entertainment in Laredo for our home games, but they want to win, so we want to win as well for them.”

Not only has Laredo gone unbeaten so far at home, it has done so in dominant fashion with just one goal allowed coming off a penalty kick across all four games. The Heat have outscored opponents by a combined 14-1 as they won 2-0 over Brownsville, 4-0 over Temple, 5-1 over Austin and 3-0 over Lubbock.

“At the away games, they don’t have as many fans as we get. It’s not even close. Sometimes we even have more fans at the away games,” Heat goalkeeper Connor Durant said. “When all the fans are here and everyone is going crazy, it is electric. It keeps the energy and the momentum going. Whenever we need a boost, we can hear the crowd and just keep going. This is a super close town, and the support we get from them is unbelievable.”

The Heat will attempt to extend their perfect stretch at home Wednesday as they host a rematch with the CF10 Houston FC at 8 p.m. at the TAMIU Soccer Complex. Laredo can officially secure a playoff berth and strengthen its shot at earning the No. 1 seed in the conference with a win. The Heat won the first matchup 4-0 on the road May 28 controlling the game after Houston received two red cards midway through the first half.

Tickets for Wednesday’s match are $5 for general admission and $20 for VIP, and children 12 and under get in free.

Visit laredoheatsc.com and follow @laredoheatsc on social media to stay up to date on the latest news. Any youth players interested in joining the academy can visit laredoheatscyouth.com for more information.