Facing their third penalty kick shootout of the District 5-4A campaign, the No. 16 Lady Lions were unable to pull off the hat trick Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium, falling to the rival Stephenville Honeybees to share the league championship for the second year a row.
Despite the loss, the Lady Lions (15-3-1, 7-1) are headed to the Class 4A Division II portion of the playoffs this year, where they will be the No. 1 seed from District 5 and face District 6 second seed Venus (11-9-1) in two weeks.
“Definitely not the night we wanted and definitely not the night we planned for, but it doesn’t take away from the awesome district season these girls have had,” said Lady Lions head coach Alexis Walker. “Thankfully this year this won’t make us the second seed in the big school bracket, Lampasas was able to get in this year, so we’ll still be the first seed, just in Division II. I believe that should be a little bit better for us.”
In the shootout, which pits five kickers from each team against the opposing goal keeper, firing a shot at the net from 12 yards out, Stephenville (11-9, 7-1) grabbed a 1-0 edge through the first round as Bella Garcia denied. Through two shooters, the score was knotted at 1 as Emily Diaz recorded a save for Brownwood and Alayna Hernandez delivered on her kick. The third time around, Stephenville picked up its second goal, while Khloe Galvan was turned away. Stephenville then took a 3-1 lead in the fourth session before Madison Weckwerth tallied the Lady Lions’ second goal. Needing to stop Stephenville’s last shot to create an opportunity to tie on the Lady Lions’ fifth and final attempt, the Honeybees were successful and snatched the victory.
“The girls fought to the very end just like they did in Stephenville, but tonight it just didn’t come out on our end. We got them over there in a shootout and they got us over here,” Walker said. “We practice PKs every single day in practice, Stephenville just had a better night than us tonight and that’s all there was to it. The first time we played them our girls were able to bury balls into the back of the net, but tonight that just wasn’t the case. I know they’re disappointed with the loss, but there’s something to be proud of in being co-district champions.”
The Lady Lions controlled the possession throughout much of regulation, but were unable to land a shot in the back of the net. In the final 10 minutes alone, near misses from Autumn Reeves, Nylah Hall, Icess Hall and Khloe Galvan forced the match into the extra session.
“They did some adjusting from the first game,” Walker said. “They knew we would have Nylah and they put two girls on her just to slow her speed down a little bit, but that was a factor. It just wasn’t our night, but now we have to move on and get ready for the playoffs.”
Brownwood, which saw its nine-game win streak come to an end, is back in action at 4 p.m. Thursday as it hosts Lake Worth in a playoff warm-up match at Gordon Wood Stadium.
Regarding the largest crowd of the season to a witness a Brownwood soccer match at home this season, Walker said, “The environment was so amazing. I looked up one time at the crowd and thought, ‘wow, this is something to really be proud of,’ and I hope the girls are, too, at the end of the day.”
