Pivotal games remain for Heat

The final month of Premier Development League play is here for many teams.

With the playoffs looming on the horizon, the Laredo Heat is hoping that it gets another chance to extend its season into August.

The Heat’s no stranger to the pressures that go hand-in-hand with the final month of action. It just hopes that its experience and knowledge can guide it back into the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.

The Heat finds itself in the same five-way Mid-South Division battle that began two months ago.
The Heat (5-1-6, 21 points) trails co-division leaders Austin Aztex (6-2-4, 22) and El Paso Patriots (7-4-1, 22) by one point.

Behind Laredo is Rio Grande Valley Bravos (5-4-4-, 19) and the West Texas Sockers (4-3-3, 15).
The Heat takes on the Aztex in Austin tonight and then plays the Dallas-Fort Worth Tornados on Sunday.

Heat coach Israel Collazo is suspended for tonight’s game after being ejected in the team’s last contest against the Bravos.

“Austin’s a well-coached and organized team,” Collazo said. “They have players that are not only quick, but strong. They can turn it on at any moment offensively, but like always we are planning to play our game.”

The Heat is coming of its first victory in nearly three weeks with a 4-2 win over the Bravos.
It was a game in which defender Soamy Bautista knocked in two goals to become the team’s first player to be named to the PDL Team of the Week.

“I had no idea,” Bautista said about the honors. “Well that’s new, I’ve never made it to anything like that before, but, hey, if it happens, it happens. What I want to do is take care of business and do what I can.”

Another thing that Bautista had never done in his two years as a starter for Texas A&M International was score a goal.

He is currently tied with Greg Mulamba in second place for the team lead in goals scored.
“It’s a surprise,” Bautista said about the goals. “I mean, I haven’t scored in two years with TAMIU, but yeah, it goes to show the nature of the game.”

The club’s leader in goals Esteban Bayona (five goals) is going to suit up, but his chances of playing depend on the situation on the field.

He is coming off an ankle sprain suffered against the Tornados back on June 18.

The club is hoping its recent offensive outburst against the Bravos continues. Before that game, it had scored seven goals in six games, five of those games ending in ties.

Bautista, who is going to be a junior for the Dustdevils next season, made a quick impact with the Heat by scoring his first goal in its season opener against the Aztex.

The defender then settled into his role for the next six games, before an injury sidelined him for the next four, in which the team went 1-0-3.

He’s still not at 100 percent, but he concedes that he probably won’t be at top form anytime soon.

This season would be Bautista’s second with the Heat if it wasn’t for a reality show that he appeared in last summer.

“It was an opportunity (the TV show) that I couldn’t pass up, you know,” he said. “So I was approached again this year, and I had nothing else going on so I couldn’t pass up a great opportunity (playing for the Heat) like this.”

Meanwhile, Bayona’s return to the team came at a perfect time, with the team battling for a playoff spot and with the roster freeze coming up on July 16.


If the Heat’s going to make it to its fifth consecutive playoffs in a row, now is the time where the players that plan to lead the team have to stand out.

“We know what we gotta do to win,” Bautista said. “We have tied plenty of games, but we haven’t lost and that’s big. We know we have gotten by with ties, but we have to grow as a team.”

The Aztex and Heat have met twice before, both in Laredo. The Heat won their first meeting, 3-1, and tied the second, 1-1.

Still, the Aztex have yet to lose at home, going 4-0-1 and outscoring teams 16-5.

“If the players execute our game plan and everything works out for us as we hope, our playoff destiny will rest solely in our hands, and, from experience, that is a good thing to have on our side,” Vela said.

Tonight, the Heat welcomes the return of Mulamba, Erick Acevedo and Alejandro de la Fuente. All three were suspended for the Bravos game.