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Belton’s Brandon Maldonado dribbles past Round Rock McNeil’s Caique Ribeiro during the Tigers’ 2-0 playoff victory Tuesday night. (Mitch Green/Telegram)

BELTON - There wasn’t an overabundance of opportunities for the Belton Tigers to display their speed. But the few chances that presented themselves proved deadly for Round Rock McNeil.

Josh Caffey scored on a first-half rush, Vincent Crepeau added a breakaway goal in the closing minutes and goalkeeper Manuel Amaya did the rest as Belton rolled past McNeil 2-0 in a Class 5A bi-district boys soccer match Tuesday night at Wilson-Kerzee Field.

The Tigers (15-7-1) - runners-up in District 13-5A - eliminated the Mavericks (10-3-6) and advanced to this weekend’s area round to face Klein, a 2-1 winner over Conroe.

“Because we had only two starters back this year (from last year’s regional quarterfinalist team), a lot of people thought this team might not do much,” Belton coach Tarcisio Mosnia said. “I think our kids feel like they have something to prove.”

The Tigers went up 1-0 with 7:43 left in the first half when they capitalized on a 3-on-1 situation.

With a teammate on each side and a defender in front of him, Crepeau fed the ball to Caffey on the right. Mavericks keeper Gui Julio charged, and Caffey’s deft touch sent the ball rolling into the far corner of the goal.

Belton had less than a handful of scoring chances during the next 35 minutes until its speed started to wear down McNeil late in the second half.

Crepeau’s rifled shot bounded off the top post with 7 minutes to go, but he broke in alone 3 minutes later and arched a shot over Julio for the capper.

“Our plan was just to play our style of game,” Mosnia said. “We had played well in the first half, even though we were only up 1-0. We told the kids to maintain the pressure and stick with it, and eventually we started getting to them.”

On the other end, McNeil was stonewalled by Amaya and Belton’s defenders.

In the first half, Mark George’s rocket shot was deflected over the crossbar by a leaping Amaya, who made a sliding stuff on Adam Boucher’s breakaway attempt 10 minutes later.

Amaya - who moved to Belton from Durango, Mexico prior to the start of the school year - made a myriad of second-half saves with a combination of diving grabs and sprawling punch-aways.

“I have been in big games before, so I knew how to handle it,” Amaya said through interpreter and teammate Ricardo Villanueva. “Futbol is the same everywhere you go.”

The time and site for Belton’s area match will be determined today.

edrennan@temple-telegram.com