Canyon Lake High’s Lauren Cooper goes all out, diving to defend her team’s goal during the Lady Rebel Cup. Lehman’s Melinda Perez-Gentry tries her best to get a shot off, but in the end the Hawks prevailed over the Lady Lobos 3-1 in pool play action. Neither Hays nor Lehman advanced to any of Saturday’s title games. Pflugerville Hendrickson pulled off an upset to win the Lady Rebel Cup title, knocking off previously undefeated San Antonio Reagan 2-1 in the finals. (Photo by Cyndy Slovak-Barton)
By JASON GORDON and MARK CAUL
Lady Rebs battle tested heading into district play
First-year Hays girls soccer coach Cole Reynolds’ goal was to test his team before the district season started.
Reynolds has certainly accomplished that mission so far.
Hays hosted the Ladies Rebel Cup over the weekend and went 1-1-2 in the toughest pool in the tournament, failing to advance to one of Saturday’s title games.
“We should be in good shape heading into district,” Reynolds said. “Out of the 12 teams we’ve played and scrimmaged, nine have been Class 5A, and all of those are playoff teams. There’s no doubt we’ve faced some stout competition.”
In pool play at the Ladies Rebel Cup, Hays tied St. Michael’s 1-1 with the help of a Kelli Uresti goal early Thursday before Hays used two more Uresti goals in the first half to coast to a 3-1 victory over Marble Falls Thursday evening. Megan Blanks scored an insurance goal off an assist from Jessica Cruz for the Lady Rebs in the second half.
“The Marble Falls game was about as well as I’ve seen us play all year,” Reynolds said. “There wasn’t anything to be unhappy about. Marble Falls historically has a pretty strong team. We made good crisp passes, and looked very strong all game long. It was the kind of play I hope I see out of us the rest of the season.”
Hays ran up against Class 5A juggernaut San Antonio Reagan Saturday morning, and lost to the sixth-ranked team in the state 2-0.
“That’s about as close a I could come to being pleased with a loss,” Reynolds said. “No one had scored on them all season to that point and I think three goals was their closest game. Reagan has been to the final four in state four times that I know of and we played very well against them.”
The Lady Rebels finished off their tournament with a 0-0 tie against Sherman High School.
Hays had a chance with the game with a dramatic last-second shot, but it sailed less than a foot right of the goal.
“It was our fourth game in two days and we weren’t as sharp as I would have liked,” Reynolds said. “We had a lot of opportunities we didn’t take advantage of. I was disappointed we didn’t make it to any of the trophy games.”
Later Saturday, Canyon Lake High won the consolation title, Akins captured the third-place game and Hendrickson upset San Antonio Reagan 2-1 to win the Rebel Cup.
“Overall, it was a very good tournament,” Reynolds said. “I think it should give us a good idea of what the competition in the playoffs will be like.”
Hays went on to knock off Giddings Tuesday night to open the district season and will next play at home in non-district action against Canyon Lake Friday night. The Lady Rebs will resume district play the next Tuesday night at LaGrange before returning home next Friday night to play Smithville.
Lehman starts slow, finishes strong at Ladies Rebel Cup
It was a far cry from the rainy and sloppy mess they had to endure at last year’s Rebel Cup but the blustery conditions that plagued much of the early part of competition definitely set the tone for a long weekend for the Lehman High girls soccer team at this year’s event.
“The wind and weather wasn’t very nice to us,” Lehman head coach Nauri Garcia said. “The ball was doing a lot of crazy things, especially in our first two games on Thursday.”
Unfortunately, the Hendrickson Lady Hawks were the benefactors of those crazy bounces - scoring two early goals en route to a 6-0 shutout of Lehman in the opening round of pool play.
Two of Hendrickson’s scoring plays symbolized how the first round of action would go for the Lady Lobos. The first goal coming on a successful header from Samantha Nunez that spiraled and found its way into the net from about 25 feet out.
Moments later, Natalie Morales fired a wind-aided shot that sailed over the heads of a couple of Lehman defenders and into the net for their second score of the contest.
“Hendrickson was a very solid team. They have a lot of girls that play club soccer and have a lot of experience,” Garcia said. “After the first half, we just wanted to make sure we continued to compete and prevent our players from getting hurt.”
Canyon Lake, which ultimately won the consolation title, also presented a challenge to the Lady Lobos, bringing in a team with speed and athleticism that emerged with a 3-1 win over Lehman in a game that was a lot closer than the score would indicate.
Lehman scored its first goal of the tournament in the loss as Jazsmine Rodriguez got them on the board midway through the first half, but the Lady Lobos missed a penalty kick and other scoring opportunities late to seal their fate against the Lady Hawks.
Lehman (5-4) bounced back on the second day of competition on Friday in a big way with wins over Del Valle and LaGrange, almost earning back-to-back shutouts in the process.
Haley Parsons, Max Soto, Ysenia Martinez, Lesley Gonzalez and Ingrid Aas all scored in the Lady Lobos 5-0 romp over district opponent LaGrange.
The Lady Lobos continued their scoring outburst against Del Valle, racking up three goals in the first 10 minutes of the match and then withstood a late goal by the Lady Cards to win 3-1 in their final game of the tournament, ultimately finishing with 21 points.
“Overall, I think we performed well considering we’ve played nine games in less than a week’s time,” Garcia said. “All the games that we lost (with the exception of the Hendrickson game at the Lady Rebel Cup) could have gone either way.”
At the McAllen Tournament just a week before, the Lady Lobos brought home the first tournament trophy in the history of their program.
After opening the McAllen Tournament with a loss, the Lady Lobos reeled off three consecutive wins over Edinburg, San Antonio Warren and Brownsville Lopez to secure the consolation trophy.
The Lehman girls will now start the District 49-4A campaign. The Lady Lobos play LaGrange and Smithville at home this week in 49-4A action.
