Defending champion Mustangs spread the wealth, win big

The defending District 31-5A champions started district play similar to most of their matches last year.

Off and running.

Despite playing in below 50-degree weather and with a slight mist coming down, McAllen Memorial captured a 7-0 win over Sharyland High in Mission on Tuesday night in both teams’ season-opener.

Scoring machine Kennedy Kaiser found the back of the net three times, seniors Chloey Mejia and Natalia Estrada scored one apiece and freshman Ariana Vargas and junior Aitana Mata each added one as the Mustangs spread the wealth.

Sharyland had given up just two goals in its first 11 matches, all non-district matches. Memorial scored two in the first half.

I couldn’t be happier considering the conditions,” McAllen Memorial coach Matthew Kaiser said. “It looked like we were moving the ball well and passing well against a pretty stacked up defense in the first half, then got a little cushion.”

Kaiser said that after a highly competitive weekend playing against Austin Vandegrift and Round Rock, his girls – especially the new ones – figured out they needed to be “playing at a high level all the time.

“It’s no doubt we have expectations for ourselves. We want to defend the title. Sure, we have injuries and people are missing but you don’t make excuses, it’s the next player up. We’re just trying to play good soccer.”

Most teams know that the biggest threat on the field at all times is the junior Kaiser, who can score in many ways and from pretty much anywhere and has ball handling skills like a master juggler. Having five different players score – including all-star and another big threatMejia – just makes the Mustang machine more efficient, and dangerous.

“Spreading the wealth is what every coach wants, not to be a on- trick pony,” Kaiser said. “It’s nice to see some of the girls scoring. It’s no surprise Kennedy will be a target against teams but we set up formations over the preseason to put girls in places to score as well.”

McAllen Memorial returns to action at 8 p.m. Friday at McAllen Rowe, which beat PSJA North in its district opener Tuesday, 6-0.

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