By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
This past Saturday April 4, the new semi-pro women’s team, the Port Isabel Sirens, held their first home game of the season at the newly remodeled Laguna Madre Park in Port Isabel.
Their opponent was the Brownsville Sting team, who happened to be the returning champions of the So-Tex Women’s Athletics League. The Sting were coming off a close week one 13-12 win over the Harlingen Black Widows, while the Sirens opened the season with a tough 19-12 loss to the RGV Lady Pumas.
The game opened as a defensive battle, with neither team able to find the endzone as the first quarter ended in 0-0 tie. For the most part, the second quarter was much of the same as both defenses continued to make fourth down stops, and cause turnovers.
As the second quarter was coming to a close, the Sirens’ Elyssa Guerra took the handoff, headed to the left side hashmarks, but ran into some would-be tacklers. She managed to shed off some defenders and started make her way to the right, shedding more opponents, finally ending up in the endzone for the score as the hometown crowd erupted in cheers.
The Sirens headed into the halftime break with a 6-0 lead.
As the second half resumed, the Sting’s offense started to find their rhythm as they tied the game up at 6-6 in the third quarter. Brownsville added another score in the fourth via a touchdown run as the Sting now led 12-6.
Although, the Sirens defense made some key stops and caused another turnover, the Siren’s offense just couldn’t muster another successful drive.
Meanwhile, with less than five minutes remaining, the Sting struck again with a touchdown pass to ultimately extend their lead to 19–6.
Sirens’ head coach John Horner was pleased with his team’s performance and the turnout by the community as well. “I am super proud of everyone on our team. We were out numbered 13 girls to almost 30 and The Sirens never quit. We are a young and brand new (team) but these girls have a lot of fight in them and am proud of every one of them.” Said coach Horner. “The game had a great turn out of fans and we are hoping to get some more recruits to join the team with the exposure.”
Coach Horner stated he has approval to use Tarpon Stadium for their next three home games, but do need sponsors to cover the field rental costs ($2000). If interested in helping out the team, contact John Horner at (239) 201-6851 or via “John Horner” Facebook page.
Comments