The El Paso Patriots have put on the miles, traveling to Jackson, MS, back to El Paso then down the border to Laredo, TX, just four days later. The beat Mississippi Brilla FC, 3-2, and were beating defending the Premier Development League champion Laredo Heat, 1-0, going into the final 20 minutes of the game.
Then, with its playoff hopes on the line, Laredo turned up the Heat, while El Paso found it had nothing left to turn up. Three goals from Isaac Morales, Felix Garcia and Charles Browne – all coming after the 71st minute – dragged the Patriots back into third place in the PDL’s Mid-South Division, as the Heat (7-4-4, 25 points) regained a one point lead over El Paso (7-5-3, 24 points) for the division’s second and final playoff berth.
Road wins are hard enough to come by. In the spread-out Mid-South, they’re that much harder because of the travel, as the Patriots suffered their first loss of the season under interim head coach Javier McDonald, now 5-1-1 since taking over from Miguel Murillo the second week in June.
Now they must win and get help from the New Orleans Shell Shockers (5-6-3, 18 points), who host the Heat Saturday night an hour before the Patriots kick off their final regular season game. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. MDT.
Though they get to be the home team, El Paso’s return to the PDL playoffs hinges ultimately on whether or not they can beat division-leading Austin at Patriot Stadium Saturday night. The Patriots have the best record against former U.S. U-20 coach Wolfgang Sunholz’s Aztex (1-1-1), after El Paso’s 2-1 win in Austin, June 27th, but the Aztex (10-4-1, 31 points) have proven themselves to be the best team in the division, having had the Mid-South title sewn up since the beginning of the month.
Should the Patriots win and Laredo tie or lose in the Big Easy, El Paso will head to Winter Park, FL, to battle in the Southern Conference playoffs next weekend. As the second place team in the Mid-South, the Patriots would face Southeast Division winners and hosts Central Florida, while Austin could face any of three teams. The Bradenton Academics (28 points), Cary (NC) RailHawks (26) and Atlanta Silverbacks (25) are separated by a mere three points going into the last weekend.
The first 1,000 fans through the gate Saturday at Patriot Stadium will receive a free Enrique “Kiki” Cervantes bobblehead. Along with Hugo Sámano, Cervantes is one of the longest-serving Patriots on the roster. Fuddrucker’s will also be serving up dollar hot dogs and nachos for the Patriot Stadium crowd.
The Patriots video webcast will be available a few minutes before kickoff as MetroSports Southwest and KLAQ/KROD sports man Duke Keith calls the play-by-play.
