Lehman’s Shayla Seegar has been a goal-scoring machine for the Lady Lobos this season. She helped Lehman to the consolation finals championship at the Ladies Rebel Cup last weekend. (photo by Judy Cooper)
by JASON GORDON
Both the Hays and Lehman high school girls soccer teams had solid performances at the Lady Rebel Cup held last weekend.
The Hays girls finished fourth overall, and the Lehman girls finished fifth, winning the consolation finals.
Hendrickson beat Trinity to win the Rebel Cup on Saturday.
“Overall it was a great tournament,” Hays head coach Cole Reynolds said. “I think the coaches from the other teams were all very pleased with the way things were run.”
Hays started the tournament slowly with a 0-0 tie against Canyon Lake High Thursday before kicking things into gear on Friday.
The Lady Rebels pummeled Akins 5-0 in their first match Friday, building a 4-0 lead at halfime.
Kelli Uresti, Savannah Derrick, Mila Bustos, Gabi Rawlings-Elsner and Mercedes Gilmore all scored for Hays in the easy victory.
Later on Friday, Hays breezed through another foe, beating Marble Falls 3-0.
Uresti took a pass from Bustos and scored, and Gilmore netted an unassisted corner kick to help give Hays a 2-0 halftime lead. Caragh Givens added a goal in the second half for the Lady Rebels.
Hays advanced to the third place-fourth place match Saturday, but lost to Georgetown 4-0. Hays was down 4-0 at the half as Georgetown built an insurmountable lead early.
“Georgetown was a strong, physical team,” Reynolds said. “We just didn’t step up to win possessions in the first half, but I was proud of the way we came back and battled and held them scoreless in the second half. That’s been one of our problems this year, it’s not that we can’t handle the high level teams, it’s that we don’t figure out we can until we’ve dug ourselves a deficit.”
Reynolds said with district play starting Jan. 31 at home against LaGrange, a game against a strong foe like Georgetown was good for the Lady Rebs.
“I told our team afterward it was exactly what we needed,” Reynolds said. “Georgetown showed us what we need to work on. Those are the kind of teams you see in the playoffs. Now it’s up to us to see if we’re up to the task.”
Lehman started the Rebel Cup with a loss to eventual tournament runner-up Trinity 2-0 before coming on strong.
Lehman beat two straight foes they will see later in district play, topping Lockhart 3-0 and Giddings 2-0.
Against Giddings, the game was scoreless until Lehman scored two goals in the final seven minutes. Hayley Parsons assisted on a Shayla Seegar goal, and Seegar assisted on a Pressley Bailey goal to help give Lehman the win.
Against Lockhart, Seegar scored twice after assists by Mariam Tamayo and Max Soto, and Valerie Murillo capped off the victory with a goal in the second half.
In the consolation finals, Lehman tied McNeil 0-0 in regulation, but won 4-2 on penalty kicks as Valerie Murillo, Bailey, Parsons and Max Soto scored for the Lady Lobos.
Both Jessica Maffet and Evelyn Martinez played strong as Lehman’s goal keepers during the tournament.
“We were really happy with the way we played defensively in the tournament,” said Lehman head coach Nauri Garcia. “We’ve really played great defense all season long, only allowing seven goals in nine games. Once our offense starts to come around we’re going to be in real good shape.”
Lehman opens the district season Jan. 31 against defending league champion Bastrop. The Lady Lobos made the playoffs for the second time in team history last season, finishing fourth in district before getting knocked out of the first round of the playoffs.
“This year our goal is not to settle for fourth,” Garcia said. “Our goal is to be right there in the battle for the first or second spot and I think we have the team to do it.”
