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Lady Cavs valiant in defeat

By: Todd Hveem, WOL Sports
| Published 03/29/2014

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HUMBLE, Texas – The Kingwood Lady Mustangs showed why they have been ranked among the top five girls’ soccer teams in the state of Texas for most of the season with a convincing 5-0 Region II-5A bi-district playoff win over the College Park Lady Cavaliers on Friday night at Turner Stadium.

The Lady Cavs also showed they were determined not to go down without a fight.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from these girls,’’ said College Park head coach Meredith Cook, who watched her fourth-place District 14-5A team finish the season 6-11-5. “They are a very tough group.’’

College Park tried to play Kingwood by dropping seven players back on defense and simply trying to keep the ball out of their own net for the first 30 minutes of the match.

The strategy worked to some extent, but the District 13-5A-champion Lady Mustangs still spent the entire 30 minutes on College Park’s end of the field and grabbed a 2-0 lead on Breezy Moore’s header at the 35:10 mark and Dominique Davis’ chip over a pair of CP defenders with 30:24 to play in the opening half.

“We came out a little tentative,’’ admitted Cook. “But that is a tough group over there. They were just fantastic.’’

The Lady Cavs managed to hold the score at 2-0 until the game was stopped due to lightning with 9:27 left in the first half. The contest, which started at 6 p.m., was delayed 2 hours, 40 minutes before it was re-started at 9:10 p.m.

The break seemed to energize the Lady Cavs, who came out with four players pushed up on offense and actually started to control the midfield.

“We came back after the lightning delay and were determined to change the pace of the game,’’ Cook said.

After Kingwood’s Jennifer Martin put on a dazzling dribbling display and scored with 6:10 left in the first half to give the Lady Mustangs a 3-0 lead, College Park’s Sammy Mount managed the Lady Cavs’ first real shot on goal when she blasted a shot from 20 yards out that was saved by Kingwood goalie Alexa Cerrato shortly before intermission.

College Park held Kingwood scoreless for the first 12 minutes of the second half due to the aggressive play of goalies Gracie Johnson and Maria
Rossi. Several times, both players would charge to the front of the goalie box to break up potential Kingwood breakaways.

“I was blessed with two talented young goalies this year,’’ Cook said. “They always gave everything they had and did the best they could.’’

Kingwood’s Ellen Braden scored on a free kick with 28:58 left in the contest and Briana Pruchka made it 5-0 with 25:09 to play.

The Lady Cavs’ Mariann Pruett managed a 30-yard shot with eight minutes left, and Christian Hammett had a beautiful cross with 6:30 remaining.

The Lady Cavs’ Rachel Steinbauer, Erin Worth, Sydney Stobart, Katie MacDonald, Alyssa Lockhart, Victoria Youngblood, Alexis Ammons, Hannah Rook, Adriana Garcia and Beth Mahnke also had contributions to the effort.

“They were the best team we played this year,’’ Cook said. “I know The Woodlands and Oak Ridge are good. But they (the Lady Mustangs) have so much offensive firepower.’’

Kingwood, which tied The Woodlands 1-1 earlier in the year, improved to 19-1-2. Its only loss to date came against District 13-5A foe Klein Collins.

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