DS Girls Soccer season ends in double OT loss

Dripping Springs — The game was tied 2-2 in the Regional Quarterfinal playoff game last Friday night at Tiger Stadium and Lady Tigers’ MVP goalkeeper for the 2021 State Champion team Caroline Dill (The Real Dill) had repeatedly kept the Round Rock Dragons off the score board for 61 minutes and 57 seconds when the Dragons, 18-1-4 (12-0-2) and District 25 winners, slipped one past her to the back of the net to take the 3-2 lead.

Photo by Wayland D. Clark
Dripping Springs’ Hodsden, pictured, tries to score a goal with a header while taking an elbow to the back from Round Rock’s Riley Wilson.[/caption]

“I’ve gotten to coach a lot of fantastic girls and Caroline Dill is one of them. She had an outstanding game with some beautiful saves,” head coach Bailee Perrine said after the loss. “We may have taken more shots than them but they had good quality shots in the frame that Caroline had to save.”

The Lady Tigers and the school’s new record holder of most goals scored in a season (50), junior Ellie Hodsden, had seven minutes and twenty-six seconds in the second overtime to tie or win the game.

“It looked like they kept three players on Ellie at all times,” Perrine said.

In an oft times lopsided slug fest, Hodsden, who got up from a dozen or more hard falls to the turf and others tried to score in every possible way as the final seconds kept counting down on the scoreboard clock. The Dragons stopped every attempt to earn the 3-2 win.

“I think two championship teams just happened to match up in this round of the playoffs,” Perrine said.

Dripping Springs scored its first goal with 37:50 in the first half and Hodsden scored with 22:01 in the second half to tie the game 2-2. The Dragons' goals in regulation play were in the first half at 12:09 and 9:23. Hodsden’s record of goals scored in a season broke the previous record of 42 held since 2009 by Angela Davis.

The loss will sting, but 16 seniors can look back at their career accolades. Dripping Springs won the 6A Region IV District 26 Championship in the team’s first year in 6A and finished the season 19-4-2 (14-0-2).

“These seniors were ranked  No. 1 when they were freshmen in the 2020 season that was cancelled,” Perrine said.

In the 2020-21 season, the Lady Tigers won the 5A State Championship and missed a trip back to State in 2022 when they lost in the 5A Region IV Finals to Boerne Champion, 2-1 in a 5-4 shoot out.

Senior Grace Payne admitted the team had some unfinished business after that loss, “On the bus ride home from Corpus (Christi) we all knew we never wanted to feel like that again.”

After the loss to Round Rock, there was no bus ride home, but the juniors and underclassmen on this year’s team will have some unfinished business to take care of as the Lady Tigers should return six starters for next year.

Seniors are: Caroline Dill, Mai Zimmerman, Eden Tomhave, Hannah Gamez, Alex Knutson, Marianne Porter, Riley Sisson, Sophia Nuccio, Audrey Edwards, Brooklyn Sparks, Reese Brayman, Hayley Bodman, Chloe Fredenburg, Grace Payne, Ella Ruff and Maddie Terry.