It was a tough week for the Madill boys soccer team with a pair of district losses but the Lady Wildcats managed to come away victorious to start the league campaign unbeaten.
Coach Nathan Fitch’s Lady Wildcats utilized a strong defensive effort once again to edge defending 3A state champ Community Christian, 1-0, on the road Friday night. The boys dropped a 3-1 verdict at Community Christian after falling short in a 4-2 loss to Harrah earlier in the week.
The soccer squads are slated to return home on Friday night for District 4A-1 matchups against district power Bethany.
Girls
The massive victory over the defending state champs should provide momentum for the Lady Wildcats for the remainder of the league chase.
“We went into the game knowing it was going to be a really tough challenge, but confident that we could pull an upset,” Fitch said. “Our game plan was to disrupt their environment and make it feel as different for them as possible so we had our foot to the throttle from the start.”
Community Christian held possession most of the early going with several scoring chances before Madill settled in, eventually notching the game’s first goal with just over 13 minutes gone. Anayah Sage cut inside to Zamarah Mata, who played a perfect pass between two defenders to Itzel Trevino and she did the rest to beat the opposing keeper.
The teams exchanged scoring opportunities the rest of the first half with Hadon Stuckey notching a pair of pivotal saves for the Lady Wildcats.
Although they didn’t find the net again in the second half, Madill remained in attack mode with Trevino, Caylee Martinez and Julia Santillan all keeping the pressureonwithnearmisses.
The Lady Wildcats then put the full clamps on defensively over the final five minutes, playing keep away in preserving the win. Stuckey wrapped up with 10 saves.
“In the absence of captain NayelyCruces,MayraTorres stepped up and led the team fantastically,” Fitch added. “Arlette Andrade made her first start and filled in nicely. Mata and Vasquez ran the middle and had their best games yet. Trevino and Martinez gave us great energy and an attack threat with Santillan and Yvette Ariciaga coming up huge off the bench.
“Overall, it was a great result but there is still a lot we need to work on. It gives us confidence that we can compete and win against a really good team, especially when we know we have a lot moretogive.Thetownshould be excited about this team’s potential.”
Boys
Madill fell behind 2-0 again and then sat through a two-hour weather delay. After another Panther goal, the Wildcats got on the board with a Misael Trevino blast into the net.
Harrah tacked on another score with Madill notching the final goal of the game with25minutesremainingas Trevinopoweredonethrough off an Alex Orta assist.
The Wildcats ended with six shots on goal.
Three critical second half miscues proved fatal in the Community Christian loss.
Madill notched six shots on goal for the game, finding the end only once after intermission off an Adrian Gomez free kick. He had three other golden scoring opportunities, but each was nicely saved by the Harrah keeper.
Head coach Jose Cortes credited his midfield of Trevino, Osvaldo Salazar and Orta for doing a great job providing chances to score.