The Brownwood Lady Lions were unable to make the most of their opportunities, which came back to bite them in a 3-1 loss to District 5-4A soccer rival China Spring Tuesday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.
Coming off a 5-0 setback to undefeated Salado last Tuesday, the Lady Lions (9-4-1, 1-2) experienced a second consecutive loss against league competition.
“We didn’t take advantage of the opportunities we had in the first half,” said Lady Lions head coach Alexis Walker. “We had multiple shots on goal and I told them at halftime we needed to come out better in the second half. China Spring came out with a goal about three minutes into the second half and we came right back got a goal to even it up, but we have to play with intensity no matter what the score is. That shouldn’t have to fire you up. You should go out every single game with the same intensity like we’re playing Salado or Stephenville. If you don’t, things like this happen.”
After a scoreless first half, China Spring struck first with 34:59 left in the contest. Just over four minutes later, with 30:56 to go, Jacklyn Lewis answered with what would be the only Brownwood goal of the contest.
China Spring regained a 2-1 lead with 23:34 to go, then tacked on an insurance goal with 1:20 remaining.
Walker said of the difference between the first and second halves defensively for the Lady Lions, “China Spring pushed more numbers up in the second half. In the first half they were playing more defensive and they changed their rotation to where they had three forwards instead of two which normally you don’t see, so they did a good job with that. China Spring always has a good squad and it went in their favor tonight.”
The Lady Lions were without stating goal keeper Noemi Ceniceros as Sidney Adkins stepped into the role Tuesday night.
“Our goalie was rushed into emergency surgery last night, but that’s not an excuse,” Walker said. “These are the cards we were handed but you have to play through it. That shouldn’t have been a factor in the game at all because we had multiple opportunities in the first half and we have to take advantage of those.”
The Lady Lions are back in action at 5:30 p.m. Friday as they welcome 2023 state finalist Stephenville.
“I’m excited to see how they will respond and I’m excited to see how they face adversity against Stephenville because that will be another tough test for us,” Walker said. “I have full trust in this team to gain their confidence back and do good things.”
