San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Volunteers oust Buffaloes in playoff showdown
LEE’s senior midfielder Henry Bowland made amends for a crucial mistake, assisting on the gamewinning goal in the Volunteers’ 3-1 victory against Clemens in a Class 6A thirdround playoff Friday at Comalander Stadium.
Bowland intercepted a Clemens clearance try and passed to junior forward Julian Sanchez, who buried the ball into the net from about 15 yards to give the Volunteers a 2-1 lead at the 24:35 mark of the second half.
“I stole the ball, and I saw a space in the middle and I heard (Sanchez) call for it, and I saw the defense split, and I just played it and luckily we scored,” Bowland said. “I made a mistake on their goal, so we were lucky we got it back.”
The score was similar to a sequence in the first half that led to Clemens’ only score when Bowland mistakenly passed the ball to the Buffaloes’ dynamic junior forward Caleb Callahan, who easily maneuvered past LEE goalkeeper Joey Batrouni and scored the match’s first goal seven minutes in.
Bowland said he played the ball to Batrouni but didn’t see Callahan in the way.
“He’s the fastest played we’ve played all year for sure, and he might be the fastest player in the state, so you can’t give him mistakes like that because he’ll capitalize every time,” Bowland said of Callahan.
LEE (24-1) handed Clemens (23-1-1) its first loss of the season. The Volunteers will face either Del Rio or Laredo Alexander in the Region IV-6A semifinals
next week.
LEE and Clemens finished 1-2, respectively, in the final Express-News regular-season rankings.
“This is going to give us confidence because this could have been easily a regional final matchup,” Bowland
said. “It wasn’t the prettiest win, but it was a gutsy performance, and it takes stuff like that to make it to state.”
The Volunteers tied the game at 1 when Jonathan Facio scored on a penalty kick with 16:28 left in the first half.
Clemens’ starting goalkeeper Luke Breu was assessed a yellow card for a foul in the box. Because players must leave the field after a yellow card until the next stop in play, Facio attempted his penalty kick against the Buffaloes’ backup goalkeeper Jacob White. Facio scored easily.
The game was tied at 1 at halftime.
Clemens nearly took the lead early the second half when Dalin Burris and Karsten Gunia had clear shots, but Batrouni made saves on each to keep the score knotted at 1.
“If they go up 2-1, that would have been a turning point in the game,” LEE coach David Rogers said. “Those saves gave us a lot of confidence and momentum that we were going to be OK defensively and we could take it to them offensively as well.”
Seven minutes after Sanchez’s goal, Batrouni made another save after Gunia connected with Leo Arango for a clear shot to keep the Volunteers on top, 2-1.
LEE added to its lead when backup goalkeeper Jesus Blanco, playing forward, broke through two defenders and then the goalkeeper and scored from about 10 yards to give the Volunteers’ a 3-1 at the 5:46 mark.
Blanco was mobbed by his teammates when the final buzzer sounded as appreciation for the insurance goal.
“I don’t know if I can call him out backup keeper anymore because he’s starting to look like our starting striker,” Rogers said.