The offensive problems seem a thing of the past, at least at home, as the Laredo Heat have strung together four straight games with three goals and have collected three wins along the way after routing Baton Rouge 3-0 before a crowd of 649 at the TAMIU Soccer Complex on Saturday night.Laredo top striker Felix Garcia has scored at least one goal in four straight contests.
The Heat (5-1-3, 18 points) now has a six point cushion over the Louisiana teams of Baton Rouge (4-5-0, 12) and New Orleans (3-3-3, 12) and are four points behind top place Austin (7-1-1-, 22).
The offensive surge helped the Heat capture 10 of the possible 12 points during their recent four game home streak as it travels to El Paso for a doubleheader next weekend.
They won't play in front of their fans again until July 12 when they host the Houston Leones.
The Baton Rouge Capitals found themselves in an early hole and were further kept off balance when they lost a man due to a red card in the 35th minute.
Laredo Captain Daniel Galvan knocked in his first goal of the season two minutes into the contest.
Galvan, standing at the right edge of the Capitals box, received a pass from Isaac Morales and calmly analyzed the situation.
He gathered the pass set-up his shot and ripped a liner to the far post out of the reach of Dustyn Brim.
It turned into a physical contest the rest of the way with the players seeing each other for the second time in as many days.The Heat collected four yellows and the Capitals three and a red card.
It was the physical play that the Capitals' Leonardo Barros failed to contain as he earned two yellows, thanks to Laredo's Ryan Cooper.
Barros' first yellow came in the 10th minute when he cut-off Cooper as he prepared to put the ball back in play, and 25 minutes later when he again had a run-in with Cooper.
Cooper only played the first half and had four saves, including a diving dandy in the 25th minute to keep the Heat atop 1-0.
With the Capitals already a man short, the sight of Garcia entering the field in the 38th minute was anything but welcomed.
Heat coach Collazo rested both of his top scorers in Garcia and Ibarra, with Ibarra not seeing the field until the second half.
Garcia needed six minutes to find the back of the net, when he corralled a Silas Blackwell pass and worked his way into the box before picking his spot, the lower right side of the net.
The LBJ junior managed to take six shots on goal despite the limited playing time.
Ex-El Paso player Jorge Muniz relieved Cooper in the second half and made two saves.
The final Heat goal came in the 85th minute on a corner kick that Garcia headed towards teammate Theo Browne, who gathered the header and slapped in his first goal for the club.
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