EDINBURG - Wearing black armbands to honor former Bronc soccer player Samuel (Sammy) Zavala, Texas-Pan American outfought Centenary College in a grim game Wednesday, 2-1.

"The coaching staff and the players wanted to dedicate this game to Sammy Zavala," said Dr. Miguel Paredes, UTPA coach.

Zavala, 30, died Tuesday of stomach cancer in Harlingen, where he coached girls soccer at Harlingen South. He was a 1992 graduate of UTPA. He played against the Broncs in the Alumni Game a year ago.

Centenary had whipped the Broncs, 4-0, in Shreveport a month ago. The Gentleman scored first Wednesday when Antonio Paternostro converted a 10-yard blast in the 28th minute. Alexandro Davila assisted.

Luis Cardenas slammed a 20-yarder that struck the right post and bounced into the net for the winning goal in the 41st minute. Reynaldo Cisneros, who had scored four goals in an 8-1 win last Friday as a substitute, was held to one assist as a starter on Wednesday on Cisneros goal. Cisneros came close on three of UTPA's 24 shots.

The Broncs stayed unbeaten at home with a 2-10-1 record. They end their revised schedule against South Texas Community college (2-4-3) at noon on Saturday in Edinburg.

"Both Gabe Serda and Rob Huq played the whole game, and they did a very good job of moving the offense up," Paredes said. 

"Our forwards -- Luis (Cardenas), Reynaldo (Cisneros) and Sergio (Cavazos) -- did their job. So did the two substitute fowards, Shawn (Jones) and Daniel (Ausucua)," the coach added. "We had seven subs play 20 minutes at the start of the second half. Otherwise we would wind up with very tired starters at the end."