GRANBURY – The Brownwood Lions’ postseason run reached its conclusion in the third round Friday night, as the Bridgeport Bulls collected a 7-2 victory in the Class 4A Division II Region I semifinals.
The Lions (7-12-2) fell behind Bridgeport (14-6) by a 4-0 count at halftime and trailed as much as 6-0 before Raven Prado scored twice in the final seven minutes of the contest.
“It was a wild night tonight,” said Lions head coach Michael Westerman. “We faced a lot of obstacles that we had not anticipated that made this game extremely difficult. We had tactics going into this game, we had a game plan and that got derailed a bit and we had to make adjustments we weren’t planning on making. Unfortunately, it was just a difficult hole to climb out of.”
Prior to Friday night, the Lions had earned a bi-district championship with a 2-1 victory over Kennedale and an area championship with a 4-3 penalty kick shootout triumph over Benbrook despite coming out of District 5-4A as the fourth and final playoff qualifier.
“It’s phenomenal what we’ve been able to accomplish this year,” Westerman said. “That’s what I was telling the boys after the game, it’s tough dealing with this right now but we have to take a step back and see what we’ve been able to accomplish. Things that people didn’t think were possible, we were able to make possible and turn a lot of heads and make some noise for our program. That’s definitely something we need to be proud of.”
Friday’s game was the final in the high school careers of Lion seniors Jose Rodriguez, Xavier Potter, Arturo Vaquera, Nolan Stearns, Juan Cervantes, Carlos Meija, Hayden Padgett, Aidan Pena, Stephen Rodriguez and Alexis Maldonado.
“They’ve been a phenomenal group for us, and a large group,” Westerman said of the seniors. “It’s special to me because this was my fourth year so I felt like we’ve done high school together. The amount of growth we’ve all had, I’ve learned a lot from them and hopefully they’ve learned a lot from me. They’re very close to my heart and they’ve played a massive role in improving this program. Being the leaders they are, with the work they put in day in and day out, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Bridgeport advances to face Fort Worth Diamond Hill-Jarvis (23-2) in the Class 4A Division II Region I championship game.
