Lake Travis in regional final after shutout win

Following a familiar playoff pattern, the Lake Travis girls soccer team took a little while to settle down before ramping up its potent offense in a Class 6A, Region IV semifinal against Brownsville Rivera on Friday. After their nerves eased, the Cavaliers rolled to four first-half goals in a 5-0 victory at the Blossom Athletic Complex.

Lake Travis (14-7-4) advanced to face McAllen at 1 p.m. today in the regional final. The winner will qualify for the UIL state tournament. McAllen slipped past San Antonio Johnson 2-1 Friday.

“It’s a learning process. We still get a little nervous at the start of the game. We were holding back,” Lake Travis coach Trey Young said. “After they got that nervousness out, they looked like they belonged.” Did they ever. After several missed scoring opportunities early in the match, the Cavaliers finally broke through when sophomore Trinity Clark scored her first of two goals on a feed from junior Maia Courtois with 23 minutes, 26 seconds to play in the first half.

Despite Rivera (11-14-3) dropping as many as eight defenders in front of the goal, Lake Travis’ forwards attacked at will. Over the next 15 minutes, the Cavaliers tallied three more goals.

Sophomore Jordyn Lewis scored after receiving a perfect crossing pass from senior Katelyn Sesny. Junior Brooke Berens and Clark each notched goals within a two-minute stretch, and the Cavaliers were headed toward their third straight shutout victory.

“They got us out of our game a little bit,” Young said. “We started getting better looks at the goal. That’s when it started happening. When the first (goal) goes, we settle down and move the ball like we should.”

After sophomore Haley Shaw scored early in the second half, courtesy of Courtois’ second assist of the match, Young pulled many of his starters. Over the final 35 minutes, the Cavaliers focused on ball control in recording their ninth shutout of the season.

Sophomores accounted for four of Lake Travis’ goals.

“We’re still young,” Young said. “We play (mostly) sophomores and juniors and a couple of freshmen and only two seniors. Last offseason, the core group of girls bought into the team concept. Now we’re starting to see the fruits of that core group.”

Class 5A, Region III

Kingwood Park 4, Cedar

Park 3: Jewell Resseguie recorded a hat track for Cedar Park, but the Timberwolves fell in a Class 5A girls regional semifinal in Humble as Kingwood Park scored the decisive goal in the second overtime period.

Resseguie, a senior who has signed with St. Edward’s, scored all six of the Timberwolves’ goals in their final three playoff matches.