Houston Lee kicked off the playoffs with a 1-0 win over MacArthur Monday night in a bi-district game at Butler Stadium.

Edwin Reyes was the hero, scoring the Generals’ only point at 5:24 in the first half. It was the junior forward's team-leading 26th goal of the season.

The preceding 35 minutes were full of shots on goal from Reyes, Ramiro Basan, Edgar Montoya, and Kevin Cuevas, but Lee couldn’t put the ball in the net.

Working a great offense, Reyes saw an opportunity, took it, and became the hero of the night.

“The more shots you take, the more opportunities you have to score,” Lee coach Fidel Andrade said of his team’s first half performance.

Then, just before the first half was over, a handball was called on MacArthur and Lee got a penalty kick. Reyes stepped up to the ball and kicked it past MacArthur’s goalie. But before the Generals could celebrate, the referee took the goal away. 

“In that type of penalty, nobody can cross the line except the shooter,” Andrade said. “And that’s what we did. It was a mental mistake. They get eager sometimes because if there is a rebound, they want to go put it in. It’s something that we just need to work on.”

Lee’s game-winning goal near the end of the first quarter put the District 20-5A Generals into the area round later this week.

“This whole year, we’ve been finishing our games in the last minutes. That’s when our forwards have been stepping up,” Andrade said.

Either Strake Jesuit or Mayde Creek will be Lee’s opponent in the area round, but for now Andrade is content with Monday night's win.

“We are looking forward to anybody and I know they are looking forward to us,” Andrade said. “But right now, we are just happy that we passed this round.”

Subscribe to this comment's feed