It’s easy to spot Vasco Tavares.<\/p>\n
The Laredo Heat SC defender stands at 6-foot-6 and is almost always the tallest player on the field.<\/p>\n
Even though it’s hard for him to hide, the Portugal native was still able to sneak in front of the net for a header in the second half on a perfect pass from Dereck Espinal. It’s not often a defensive player gets to score a goal, but the feeling never gets old for Tavares.<\/p>\n
“It always feels good,” Tavares said. “As a defender, you don’t always get to score. We don’t have many chances, so we’ve got to take advantage of the ones we have. It was a great assist by Dereck (Espinal), so I’m happy that I was able to help the team get a win.”<\/p>\n
Tavares’ header was sandwiched between goals by Brandon Martinez and Espinal to give the Heat a 3-0 win over AC Houston Sur. The Heat are 4-0-1 and in first place in the Lone Star Division with 13 points, while AC Houston Sur stays in last place at 0-3-1 with one point.<\/p>\n
It was a dominating win, too. The Heat maintained consistent control of possession throughout the victory. AC Houston Sur’s first real possession didn’t come until the 31st minute.<\/p>\n
“We knew about their game plan: waiting for a counterattack,” Heat coach Johnny Ibarra said. “We told the guys we had to be patient and play our game.”<\/p>\n
Playing their game meant plenty of opportunities for the Heat, who couldn’t capitalize early. Strong shots on goal were saved, and missed passes led to the Heat being up just 1-0 at halftime. Martinez netted a header in the 24th minute on a beautiful lob pass from Kai Tamashiro.<\/p>\n
The Heat again came close to blowing the game open, but it wasn’t until Tavares’ header that their constant pressure started to weigh on AC Houston Sur.<\/p>\n
Espinal sent a missile of a cross to the front of the net. Tavares avoided the defender to connect on the quick exchange. The goal put Laredo up 2-0 and sent the crowd at PEG Energy Stadium into a frenzy.<\/p>\n
“This atmosphere is like something I’ve never experienced before,” Tavares said. “I just want to thank all the fans who come here to watch every single time.”<\/p>\n
Espinal capped the 3-0 win with a goal in the 92nd minute.<\/p>\n
The win marked the first of three straight home games for the Heat. They also host Lonestar SC on June 9 and Twin City on June 17.<\/p>\n
“We know our mentality and our goals. We’re here for a reason,” Ibarra said. “Our goal is to win the national championship, but we have to go one game at a time. We have a lot of quality players. Whoever is playing is ready to make a difference.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s easy to spot Vasco Tavares. The Laredo Heat SC defender stands at 6-foot-6 and is almost always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[87644,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-326707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-aud4h","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}