The Brownwood Lady Lions returned to the win column Friday night in their final game of the season at Gordon Wood Stadium, blanking District 5-4A soccer rival Gatesville by a 3-0 count.
The Lady Lions (13-8-1, 5-6), who have locked up the fourth seed for the playoffs out of 5-4A, scored all three of their goals in a 12-minute span of the opening half.
“They started off really fast in the first half,” said Lady Lions head coach Alexis Walker. “They wanted to compete well for the seniors, and I told them don’t take for granted the opportunity that God has given you.”
Just 8:23 into the contest, Alma Bernal lit up the scoreboard from 10 yards out to start the scoring barrage. With 22:28 remaining before the break, Braycee Lee scored off an assist from Adryanna Huerta and 2:30 later – at the 19:58 mark – Madison Weckwerth scored off a rebound when Jacklyn Lewis’ shot attempt was deflected by the goal keeper.
Noemi Ceniceros, back in goal after emergency surgery earlier in the season, posted the shutout.
“Our goal before every game is to get three on the board and get the shutout and we did that tonight,” Walker said. “Our defense did a great job and from the beginning I felt like our defense was our strong suit. We’ve played some tough competitors in district but they’re still the backbone of our team.”
Regarding the importance of earning a win on Senior Night, Walker said, “Our senior group consists of eight girls, three of which are on a mission trip to Uganda right now, which speaks volumes about who they are. They choose to forego their Senior Night and spread God’s word and that’s what we talk about all the time in practice and what I hope to share with them. The ones that were here tonight have been with me from the start. They were my first group of freshmen so to see them grow into the people they are today is the biggest blessing in the world. They’re a special group to me and I can’t wait to see all the things they’re going to do in the world.”
The Lady Lions will visit Little River Academy at noon Tuesday in the regular season finale, then head to Marble Falls for a playoff warm-up game on Wednesday, March 20, and battle District 6-4A champion Waxahachie Life in the bi-district round of the playoffs at a time, date and place to be determined.
“Fourth is not where we want to be, but our district is very competitive so even facing a No. 1 seed I think we can be successful,” Walker said. “We’ve already watched some film on Waxahachie Life and we know the areas where we can improve and some things we can do to be successful in that game. We’ve also picked up a warm-up game a week from Wednesday at Marble Falls, who is second in their district behind Burnet. We have two weeks from the end of our district until the playoffs, so this will be good for us.”
