After seeing their early weekactionwithCommunity Christian postponed due to weather, the Madill soccer teams got back to play on Friday by splitting a couple of district thrillers at Cache.
The Lady Wildcats notched another strong effort but ended up falling 4-3 on penalty kicks after each team went scoreless through regulation and a pair of overtime periods.
Coach Jose Cortes’ Madill boys notched a big 3-1 victory that puts them on the brink of Class 4A playoff qualification withthreecontestsremaining this week.
Girls
Each team had several attacks that came up empty on chances in front of the goal in the opening half. Madill stayed tough defensively however even despite losing standout Hadon Stuckey midway through the half.
The second half was a similar battle as the Lady Wildcats held their own, including holding off a ramped up Lady Bulldog onslaught in the last 15 minutes.
McKinzy Nance kept Madill in it with several huge saves in goal in the overtime sessions. With 90 seconds remaining the Lady Wildcats had a golden opportunity on a free kick from Trevino from 25 yards out that just missed.
In the shootout to decide the contest, Trevino gave Madill the early advantage but the only other Lady Wildcat shots to find the net came from Guevara and Vasquez while Cache connected on four shots.
“We competed hard for the entire 100 minutes,” Lady Wildcat head coach Nathan Fitch commented. “Cache had more shots on goal than us and created more but we expected that going and our plan was to defend well and play on the counterattack. The girls executed the plan extremely well and were so unlucky not to sneak one through for a win on the road.
“That makes it four games in a row in which we’ve put in competitive performances that I’m proud of. We have struggled mightily against Cache the past two years so taking them to penalty kicks shows our program is moving in the right direction.”
Boys
The Wildcats improved to 3-1 in District 4A-1 action with their third consecutive league victory.
It only took roughly five minutes for Yadel Corona to put Madill in front on a blast just outside the 18-yard box and they led the rest of the way.
Madill added a second goal off a corner kick that was deflected by a Cache player. Sammy Duran blasted through a shot for the third tally of the game in which the Wildcats produced 20 shots on goal which was also aided by seven saves by Christopher Narvaez.