Vidor advances with 4-1 victory over Liberty in playoff action
Liberty's Dayron Blanes Salcedo tries to keep the ball away from a Vidor player on Monday night at Beaumont's ISD Memorial Stadium. The Vindicator | Jerry Michalsky
Liberty's David Del Rio looks for an opening against Vidor Monday night in playoff action in Beaumont. The Vindicator | Jerry Michalsky
BEAUMONT —The Liberty Panthers and Vidor Pirates matched up against each other for the third time this season on Monday night.
With both teams splitting wins during the regular season, they met at Beaumont's ISD Memorial Stadium for the third and final time in their bi-district match-up, and this one saw Vidor advance in the playoffs with a 4-1 win over Liberty.
The Pirates defense stymied the Panthers offense, and Vidor saw four players score goals.
Rui Correia got the Pirates on the scoreboard early on with a breakaway down the left sideline and firing a shot into the net in the 7th minute to give his team a 1-0 advantage.
The Panthers did take a couple of shots on goal in the 15th and 30th minutes as Anthony Garcia and Daniel Bacerra came up just a little short.
Vidor made it 2-0 a minute later as Branson Healey scored on a deflection from another shot on goal.
Just before the end of the first half, Liberty's Daniel Del Rio made a nice defensive play to stop another Pirates potential goal.
In the 5th minute of the second half, Vidor's Mario Algora Roy went right up the middle for a goal and the lead was 3-0.
The Pirates added some insurance in the 20th minute of the second half with their fourth goal to make it 4-0.
Liberty would get a goal in the 31st minute, with Christian Quintinilla finding the nets for a score and the deficit was down to 4-1.
The Panthers never stopped hustling and playing hard but could not close the gap advanced ap as Vidor a anced to the next round.