Joel "Jewlz" Morris
Sports Editor
The Jags scored three goals, defeating Texas A&M University-Texarkana on Nov. 6 to advance to the Red River Athletic Conference semi-finals championship game.
Led by junior forward Jacob Olivarez, who scored two goals off the bench, providing a spark for the Jags offense, as they initially struggled to finish through the net.
“My mindset was to get the team a goal,” Olivarez said.
Over the past few weeks, Olivarez has been battling injuries and missing game action, so when head coach Roberto Jaramillo called his number, he was ready.
“Coach asked me if I was ready and I said, I was, He put me in,” Olivarez said.
With a 2-0 lead in the first half, the Eagles were urgent to put some points on the board to overcome the deficit and started asserting themselves on offense. The Jaguar defense stood tall as senior goalkeeper Marco Matranga got on his knees to slide and stop a goal in close range.
It was not unusual for senior forward Ronald Aguilar to make an impact on the game and find his teammates, finishing with two assists, including finding senior midfielder Oscar “Toro” Hernandez in the second half to extend the Jags lead to 3-0.
“I didn’t even see him, I just heard him,” Aguilar said. “That chemistry we have in practice, it just goes through the game.”
Winning this quarterfinals matchup marks history as the first playoff win for Men’s Soccer ever.
Coach Jaramillo is impressed with his team, saying they’re “special,” Jaramillo said. As they had this goal in their mind from the beginning of the season.
“We talked about it at the beginning of the season,” Jaramillo said. “We felt like if we did things the right way, we could get there.”
From senior leaders like Hernandez, telling his teammates in the huddle, “don’t be happy, we are in the Final Four but be happy we have a chance to win it all”, to Aguilar saying, “We already made history, we’re going to keep going.” The upperclassmen are playing to extend their collegiate careers and finish on top.
The Jags have three days to prepare for Louisiana State University-Shreveport in Texarkana, Texas.
LSU-Shreveport beat the Jags 6-2 on Oct. 11 and Hernandez has a little bit more motivation beyond the playoff stakes to perform well against LSU-Shreveport.
“Me personally, I have a grudge against the team we’re going to play on Monday,” Hernandez said. “They scored six on us, that never happened in my life before, so I take it a little personally.
