The Brownwood Lions were unable to stretch their win streak to three games as they dropped their soccer home opener to the Class 5A Abilene Cooper Cougars, 2-0, Tuesday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.
The Lions (2-3) surrendered one goal in each half to Cooper (2-2).
“It was a bit frustrating,” said Lions head coach Michael Westerman. “We knew Abilene Cooper was going to be a great team. The play with a lot of physicality, they’re very technical players and this was a chance for us to rise to the occasion. They exposed us a lot which is good. We need to get back to the drawing board and look at a couple of things. I was extremely proud of our work ethic, defending our goal and putting our bodies on the line, but transitioning to the goal was frustrating today.”
Regarding the two goals the Lions allowed, Westerman said, “It was a couple of mental errors where we just lost track of runners and weren’t able to pick people up. Communication is a key and that’s something we struggled with a lot today.”
The Lions will be back in action at 6:15 p.m. Friday at Godley.
“I try to do my best to make a tough preseason for us against tough 4A and 5A teams to prepare us for district,” Westerman said. “Of course we want to win, but these games in the preseason, you want to play tough opponents, get exposed, and get used to the intensity and the pace we want to play at.”
