The Brownwood Lions avenged an earlier District 5-4A setback and kept their postseason hopes alive with a 2-1 victory over the China Spring Cougars Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.
“I’m incredibly proud of the result and finally being rewarded for all the work that we’ve put in,” said Lions head coach Michael Westerman. “It’s been a difficult season and losing in the first round against them there was a chip on our shoulder going into this game. We’ve been working super hard, we played extremely well, we struggled a little bit in the attacking third but were able to get it across the line for the win.”
The Lions improved to 3-6 in district play and 5-9-1 overall with the victory. After Friday’s results, Brownwood trails Lampasas (9-8-3, 5-5) by 1 ½ games for the fourth and final playoff berth in 5-4A with three contests remaining.
Against China Spring (3-15, 1-9) Friday night, after a scoreless first half Caden Carnes found the net off a penalty kick from Jose Rodriguez just 5:23 into the second half. Less that five minutes later, Colton McMillian scored from 20 yards after the China Spring goal keeper charge, leaving the net open.
“That’s what we’ve done when we’ve scored this year,” Westerman said. “We get a bit of confidence and that pushes us to go and fight for another one. We score a goal, build that confidence and adrenaline, and we’re able to find another before they’re able to recover. That’s just a testament to our eagerness and competitiveness.”
China Spring broke up the shutout on a goal with 15:10 left in regulation, but the Brownwood defense held down the stretch.
“We did an extremely good job defensively preventing them from having opportunities to score,” Westerman said. “It’s extremely unfortunate the way we conceded the goal, it was a very difficult angle. We were faced with a bit of adversity, we’ve been up 2-0 on teams before and it hasn’t always gone on our way, so I was proud of how we responded and that we were able to maintain the lead.”
The Lions are back in action at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday as the visit district co-leader Stephenville.
