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Laredo Returns Home with Three Points After North Texas Road Trip

By Admin, 06/18/24, 7:15PM CDT

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Heat Drop Heartbreaker to the Denton Diablos on Saturday Night

 

The Laredo Heat suffered their first loss of the season Saturday on the tail end of their three-day road trip as they were edged 1-0 by the Denton Diablos FC in a battle for first place in the NPSL’s Lone Star Conference.

“The game went about how we thought it would go with both teams having their spells of possession and both teams having dangerous chances,” Heat head coach John Powell said. “At the end of the day, they took their chance off a deep throw in, and we failed to convert some really good looks. That’s the game.”

 

The Heat (4-1-1, 13 points) entered the matchup with a two-point advantage in the standings after winning 3-2 Thursday against the Fort Worth Vaqueros FC. However, Denton (4-0-2, 14 points) took care of business in its first match in nine days Saturday to become the only unbeaten team remaining in the conference and pull ahead by a point.

 

With Laredo and Denton playing only once in the regular season this year, the Diablos now control their destiny in the race for the regular season title. The razor-thin margin between the league’s top two teams will make every point essential in the final four games. One aspect that could work in the Heat’s favor is playing three of their final four matches at home, while Denton faces the inverse playing three times on the road. The Heat’s bid to get back on top starts Wednesday hosting a rematch with Austin United FC at PEG Energy Stadium.

In addition to being Laredo’s first loss, Saturday was also its first time being held scoreless. Through the first half of the regular season, the Heat had scored multiple goals in every match while averaging 2.6 goals led by a conference-high seven goals from Manuel Ponce Casas.

 

“It was one of those nights, and maybe it’s the universe,” Powell said. “Manu has finished almost every really good look he has had. We’ve had brilliant goals and all this stuff. And goals do dry up. You can’t score them every game. It would be nice if you could.”

 

Saturday was an evenly-matched, back-and-forth affair with much of the action coming in the middle third. Both sides generated chances throughout the half, but it was Denton that broke through in the 34th minute.

 

With a throw-in from high up on the right side, the Diablos got a deep throw into the box. The Heat attempted to head the ball out of harm’s way, but it bounced right to a Denton forward toward the top right corner of the box, and he quickly shot past a diving attempt from Laredo goalkeeper Adrian Gallardo into the lower left corner for a 1-0 lead.

 

“It was a calamity of bad luck. That guy on the scout has a very big throw in. The ball slipped out of his hands and basically went straight up,” Powell said. “We won the header, but it just fell to one of their players who was really reactive and reacted before ours and had a really nice finish.”

 

Denton nearly added to its advantage in the 56th minute with multiple chances. However, Gallardo deflected away a point-blank shot, and Diego Rocha made a sliding block to take away a would-be rebound goal.

 

“Diego has been fantastic all summer,” Powell said. “He is a great person, and he is a really good player. He has been reliable for us. He was very good on the night. He’s strung together some great appearances.”

 

One of the Heat’s best chances to find the equalizer came in the 66th minute as Jonathan Cardona pressured Denton’s keeper and his attempt to pass the ball away trickled toward the right corner of the net. However, a Diablos defender narrowly won the race to the ball and cleared it away.

 

In the 74th minute, Cardona executed a give-and-go with Jorge Amaya before cutting around a defender in the left side of the box. He centered a cross which nearly resulted in an own goal from the Diablos, but they narrowly cleared away the deflection. The clearance went right to Ponce Casas toward the right side of the box, but his attempt at the equalizer went just wide left.

 

In the 87th minute, Laredo capitalized on a turnover near midfield to get Lex Bernier into the box and moving forward. However, Bernier was bumped by a defender to the ground, and with no foul called the Diablos were able to clear the ball.

 

Ponce Casas had the ball knocked away from him in the center of the box in the 91st minute. The attempted clear out resulted in a free kick for Laredo from about 30 yards out. A cross to the right found Heat captain and center back Lewis Wilson who delivered a centering header to Amaya. Amaya put a point-blank header on net, but it was saved by the Denton keeper. The Diablos closed out the final three minutes from there to hold on for the three points.

 

“I don’t know how it did not go in,” Powell said. “That could have gone anywhere but right where he put it unfortunately, but that’s the game. It’s just a frustrating game for sure.”

 

The Heat will begin their push to get back to the top of the table on Wednesday hosting Austin for a 7:45 p.m. game at PEG Energy Stadium. In their first meeting in Austin, Laredo rallied with a goal near the end of added time to salvage a draw. Austin (1-4-1, 4 points) will be desperate for points to stay in the playoff race after being edged 2-1 at home Sunday against third-place FC Brownsville (3-1-2, 11 points).

 

Laredo also travels this week for a Saturday match at FC Brownsville. Meanwhile, Denton has another home match Thursday against the Lubbock Matadors (1-2-1, 4 points) before traveling Saturday to Austin.

 

“We feel good about it. We came away from that really tough road trip for the most part injury free,” Powell said. “Sure, there are tired legs. There have been a lot of minutes. It will be a really good opportunity for the coaching staff to rotate some players into key positions while still keeping the level extremely high. That is the standard we want to put out on the pitch for the fans at home, and they’ll get that for sure.”

 

Visit youtube.com/@LaredoHeatSC for live streams of the Heat’s matches. For ticket information and to stay up to date on all things Laredo Heat, visit laredheatsc.com, follow @laredoheatsc on all major social media platforms or email Vaswanifamily@about-time.com.