Following a scoreless first half, the Brownwood Lady Lions caught fire in the second half, scoring all of their goals in a stretch of just over 19 minutes in a 5-0 victory over District 5-4A rival Little River Academy Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium.
“To say the least it was a little bit of a slow start,” said Lady Lions head coach Alexis Walker, whose team improved to 11-5-1 overall and 3-3 in district action. “I told them at halftime, God gives you the ability to step on the field and play every Tuesday and Friday night, so do something positive with it. That’s something I challenged them with and it still took a little bit to wake up. When we’re connecting it’s great, and when we’re not it’s not. I’m glad they finally woke up, but they have to play like they love the game every single game.”
With 31:42 left in the contest, the Lady Lions finally found the back of the net on a goal by Braycee Lee. Then, with 24:43 remaining, Madison Weckwerth added an insurance goal for a 2-0 lead.
Just 4:21 later, Alma Bernal scored the first of her two consecutive goals, with the second coming at the 18:03 mark.
Rylie Schaffer then concluded the scoring with 12:06 remaining, as all five Brownwood goals were scored in a span of only 19:36.
“We play some of the top teams in the state in our district and some days you get a lighter game and these are the ones that are supposed to be fun for us,” Walker said. “It took us until halftime to remember that, and I don’t think it should take us that long to remember that.”
Schaffer was one of three new additions to the roster from basketball, including new goalie for the night Hannah Deen.
“We had three basketball girls on the field for us today,” Walker said. “Hannah Deen was able to step in at goal keeper for us today which is awesome because we’re still missing Noemi Ceniceros who is recovering from surgery. We have Icess Hall who played a lot of minutes for us last year after basketball ended and she’s a great defender, and Rylie Schaffer, who played in a game last year in Burnet and dislocated her kneecap, stepped up and made a goal tonight. She has a love and a passion for the game and comes out here and produces for us.”
The Lady Lions reached the midway point of the District 5-4A slate in fourth place, with the second half of the league schedule set to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Lampasas.
“We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole with the loss to China Spring, we’re sitting in fourth right now which is not where we want to be, but I believe we have the ability to get ourselves into the third or even second spot,” Walker said. “We’re going to have to figure out if we want it bad enough because going into the playoffs as fourth place is not where you want to be.”
