By RGV Fútbol/Staff

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HIDALGO, 23 Jan. - Brownsville Rivera dominated the Hidalgo-Valley View Copa La Frontera Tournament and defeated intra-city rival Brownsville Pace 2-0 in the championship final to claim the title of the eighth edition of the competition on Saturday at Bill Pate Stadium.

Isidro Martínez and Luis López scored the game-winning goals on a pair of breakaway plays in the first half.

Rivera held off Pace in a stop-and-go second half to win the championship match. Prior to Rivera, Pace was the last Brownsville squad to win the Hidalgo-Valley View tourney in 2009.

The Raiders dominated the three-day tournament from start to finish. In the group stage, Rivera raced to an undefeated 6-1-0 (wins, ties, losses) record for 31 points to win Group 1. Rivera conceded only two goals in the first round, and didn’t allow a single tally in the finals.

In the semifinals, Rivera ousted Mission Veterans Memorial 2-0 on scores from Felipe Rodríguez and Raúl Zaragoza to advance to the title game.

Pace won Group 2 with a 4-1-1 mark for 25 points, while Mission Vets took second.

The Vikings slipped past the defending Copa La Frontera champion and Group 1 second place La Joya Palmview Lobos 2-1 in the semifinals on tallies by Juan Quintanilla and Alessio Russino. Adrián Lozano scored Palmview’s goal.

In the third place game, Julio Rodríguez scored the only goal of the match to give Mission Veterans a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Palmview.