By RGV Fútbol/Staff

Related Links: Versión en Español

LA JOYA, 30 Jan. - You wouldn’t have known it by watching how the La Joya Juárez-Lincoln boys soccer team marched their way to the championship game of the inaugural La Joya Tournament on Saturday, but they were mourning the loss of teammate Luis Hernández, who was killed in a car accident last weekend.

"It was very emotional, fortunately we played well," said Juárez-Lincoln head coach Víctor Ramos. "It was tough and hard to understand. He was only 17."

The fatigued Huskies side lost the championship match to the Brownsville Porter Cowboys 2-1 at Coyote Stadium last night. But the team wasn’t just tired from playing three games in one day, it was the culmination of a long week during which they saw their friend and teammate Luis Hernández, 17, buried on Wednesday.

"Every game from now on is for Luis Hernández and his family," said Ramos. "We dedicate the whole season to them."

Hernández was a starter on Juárez-Lincoln’s varsity squad and played his most recent game on Jan. 21 with the Huskies’ JV team.

On the morning of Jan. 23, Hernández went to work at 7 a.m. at a local flea market with a friend, a former Juárez-Lincoln player, when a car struck the vehicle they were driving directly in the side of the door where Hernández was sitting. Hernández’s friend, whose name was not given, is still in coma. The driver of the other vehicle was intoxicated.

Head coach Ramos and his players spent most of the week digesting the news and attending the wake and funeral. The team didn’t practice until Thursday, the day before the start of the La Joya Tournament, but it seemed too surreal to even call it a practice, according Ramos.

"It’s been a real hard week," explained Ramos. "The wake was on Tuesday and the mass and funeral were on Wednesday at noon, but we returned to practice on Thursday, if you want to call it that. We talked about what we had to do from now on, and the kids agreed to give it their all this season for him and his family."