Looking to avenge an earlier one-goal loss in District 5-4A soccer action, the Brownwood Lions instead suffered a league sweep at the hands of the rival Stephenville Yellow Jackets following a 5-1 defeat Tuesday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.
The Lions– who dropped their first meeting at Stephenville, 3-2 – trailed 1-0 just 87 seconds into the rematch and gave up four goals in the opening half, which proved far too great a deficit.
“Going into this game we expected a lot more than we put out there,” said Lions head coach Michael Westerman. “Stephenville is a phenomenal opponent and we knew that going into the game, it was a very tough match the first time we played them. We hit the drawing board after that first game and were trying some new tactics and unfortunately they just didn’t work out tonight.”
The Lions (10-11-1, 6-4) were able to knot the score at 1 with 27:42 left in the first half on Noah Barron’s 24th goal of the season, but Stephenville (14-1-2, 9-1) regained the advantage just 31 seconds later.
The Yellow Jackets then added goals with 16:57 and 10:51 left in the first half, and scored once more in the second half with 9:29 remaining.
While there are pluses to take away from playing a tougher caliber of competition the last two contests, Westerman stated the Lions also need to refocus heading into the last two games of the regular season to gear up for the playoffs.
“We know that’s the kind of competition we’re going to face in the playoffs, which is why our pre-district schedule was so tough as well,” Westerman said. “We had a four-game win streak before the Salado and Stephenville games and I think maybe we got a little content and this has been a bit of an eye opener for us.”
The third-place Lions are back in action at 7 p.m. Friday at fourth-place Gatesville, who they lead by a game in the league standings, then wrap up the regular season at home at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Little River Academy.
