Furious rally keeps Rangers’ streak alive
When a team is 21-0 and has outscored its opponents, 95-5, over the course of a season, chances are it hasn’t faced much in the way of adversity.
However, Smithson Valley’s girls soccer team was in just such a spot Tuesday night, trailing Pieper, 3-1, late in the first half of their District 26-5A match at Pieper.
The Rangers responded to the challenge, though, scoring twice just before halftime to tie the match before taking control in the second half and earning a 5-3 victory that allows Smithson Valley to close the regular season a perfect 22-0 overall and 14-0 in district play. The playoffs begin next Thursday.
“We’ve not been down like that all season,” Smithson Valley coach Jason Adkins said. “For us to be able to get those goals back and get tied by halftime was huge. We’ve got 13 seniors and nine of them start and they really stepped up for us tonight when we needed them to.”
Pieper (16-5-1, 11-3) struck less than 90 seconds into the match when Ariana Vaszquez scored. Smithson Valley came back just less than 10 minutes later and tied it 1 on a goal by Arianna Monnin.
Vazquez got her second goal of the match at the 14:15 mark and the upset-minded Warriors kept that 2-1 lead until 32:26, when Zea Gonzalez for a 3-1 Pieper lead.
Smithson Valley responded with two goals by Sabrina Taber, including one with 32 seconds before halftime that tied it at 3.
The Rangers carried the momentum into the second half and took a 4-3 lead at the 43:41 mark when Monnin sent a cross into the Pieper penalty area, where Alex Smithwick buried the cross for the go-ahead score.
Smithson Valley finished the scoring at 54:23 when Monnin got loose in the Warriors’ penalty area, sent a shot towards goal that was saved and then pounced on the subsequent rebound and sent it home to make it 5-3.
The final 25-plus minutes of the match were mostly spent in Pieper’s end of the field, though the Warriors did have occasional flashes of offense against a Smithson Valley defense that came into the match with 18 shutouts on the season.
“I thought we played well tonight,” Pieper head coach Season Caughlin said. “I think we played with more composure, but our offense was too up and down. We have to be able to produce offensively.”
Adkins said that while he was glad his team was able to overcome the adversity, he said that matches like his team had Tuesday will prepare them for the rigors of postseason play.
“I definitely feel like we needed a match like this,” said Adkins, whose team has now outscored its opponents, 100-8, this season. “Coaches say they don’t want to lose or draw or not have tough matches, but matches like this make us better. Our last three matches of the regular season were against the other three teams going to the playoffs from our district (Pieper, Boerne Champion and New Braunfels Canyon) and I think that will bode well for us.”