RGV Barracudas hold off furious Roc City Boom rally to win 2024-25 title

FRUITLAND, Maryland -- More than a decade after they made their debut in indoor soccer, the RGV Barracudas can call themselves "champions".

RGV, which as an organization goes back to 2004 in Brownsville, Texas, made its debut in the Major Arena Soccer League in the 2014-15 season. After three seasons in the MASL, the Barracudas tried their hand at Major Arena Soccer League 2 for two seasons, starting inn 2021-22, and finally settled this year at Major Arena Soccer League 3, winning its first indoor championship by hanging on to defeat the previously unbeaten Roc City Boom, 8-6.

They have had much indoor success without ever having won a title. In their first season in MASL 2, they finished 10-1-1, good for second place in the West behind only the San Diego Sokcers 2. In 2022-23, they were 7-5 before going darn for one season in 2023-24.

The roared back to life in MASL 3, however, and went right down the final weekend of the regular season before earning their spot in the postseason, defeating the Houston Bolt 6-2 in a winner-take-all matchup.

RGV won Friday night over Northern Virginia, the three-time defending MASL 3 champions, and then earned their spot in the finals with a 5-4 win over Kalamazoo.

The title tilt was a roller-coaster affair, with RGV racing to a 7-1 lead. But this being indoor soccer, where just about anything and everything can happen and usually does, Rochester turned on the offensive jets in the fourth quarter, and pulled to within two goals with almost six minutes to play before RGV slammed the door. 

In fact, the Barracudas pitched a shut out for over two quarters after Taner Bay opened the scoring for the Boom a little more than five minutes into the first. Back to back goals four minutes apart in the first from Ivan Martinez, however, started the RGV string of seven unanswered. Jameson Raily finally broke that string with 66 seconds to play in the third quarter, and Roc City outscored RGV 5-1 in the final 15 minutes, but it wasn't quite enough. 

Martinez finished with a hat trick, and capped off a sterling weekend as he totaled seven goals. Jose Echavarria also had three goals and John Ponce chipped in with two assists. Abelado Reyes made 24 saves to pick up the win as Roc City held the edge in shots, 30-28. 

For fans of Rochester, is a replay of the ending of the 2023-24 indoor soccer season. A number of Roc City players played on last year's MASL 2 Rochester Lancers team that was idled this year because of a lack of a suitable arena. That team, like Roc City, had a perfect regular season, and fell in the league's championship game.

Alex Harling had a three-goal afternoon, while  Bay had two goals and one assist. Both played for the Lancers last season. 

Major Arena Soccer League 3 will kick off its fifth season of action late next fall. More information is always available at www.masl3.com.