Grandes' offense no-shows in 1-0 loss

EDINBURG — The Rio Grande Valley Grandes earned their first win in franchise history last week against Chivas El Paso after they scored six goals.

Saturday, it was far from the same scenario. The Grandes did not score in a 1-0 loss to the Baton Rouge Capitals at Edinburg Baseball Stadium. RGV is now 1-7 on the season while Baton Rouge (4-3) has won four in a row.

The only goal the Capitals needed was by Achilles Campeon in the 29th minute.

The Grandes were missing a big part of their offense in the first half with Juan Nava on the bench.

Nava was held out of the first 45 minutes of the game for “tactical purposes,” Grandes player/coach David Oteo said. On Thursday, Nava was named the PDL player of the week after scoring four goals against Chivas.

Oteo said he thought it worked for them for the most part. The team played well defensively other than for one miscue in the first half.

“It was a defensive mistake that permitted the goal,” Oteo said in Spanish.

Nava said he found out before the game that he was not going to start, adding that no explanation was given other than that it was for tactical reasons.

The forward said he was disappointed with the decision but that the team comes first.

“Coach made the decision and put someone else up top,” Nava said. “He wanted to give someone else an opportunity — Marco Ruiz. He is a very good player. There are no stars on this team.”

The Grandes, though, could not score with Nava on or off the field. RGV’s best chance to score in the first half was a shot from 30 yards by Eduardo Alvarez in the 11th minute.

Alvarez’s shot looked as if it was going to rainbow over Adam Pittman’s head but the goalkeeper leaped to catch the ball and did a good job of extending his arms out in front of him to keep the ball from crossing the goal line.

Nava returned in the second half but offensively things weren’t much better. Ruiz and Nava had the best chances at scoring with attempts in the 65th and 67th minutes, respectively.

“We played well,” Oteo said in Spanish. “As you can see in this game, we weren’t finishing like we were last week. That was the difference.”

The Grandes return to action at 8 p.m. next Saturday when they play host to West Texas.

Peter Rasmussen covers sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448.