TWHS beats Montgomery, continues winning streak
Seasons have changed, holidays have come and gone, calendars have flipped, and it has been 740 days since The Woodlands lost a district game.
The Lady Highlanders kept that streak intact on Friday evening at Woodforest Bank Stadium, defeating Montgomery 3-0 in a battle between the firstand second-place teams in District 12-6A.
It was the 22nd consecutive win in league play for The Woodlands, which is ranked No. 3 in the state by the Texas Girls Coaches Association behind only Katy Cinco Ranch and Allen, respectively.
The last time the Lady Highlanders dropped a district game was back in February of 2016, suffering a close 1-0 setback at the hands of former 16-6A foe Kingwood.
The Woodlands (16-0-2, 6-0) will travel to play Oak Ridge on Tuesday night and fight to keep its undefeated district record alive.
“We knew that they were going to come at us pretty strong,” The Woodlands coach Dina Graves said of Montgomery. “They were ready to go, and they’ve been playing really well. They’ve kind of picked up momentum since we last played them, and they’re a good little team. They are going to be a force to be reckoned with, for sure. … We were focused, we had a good week of practice, and we were ready to go.”
The Woodlands wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard as senior Jazzy Richards connected with the nylon on a free kick from about 20 yards out on the right side of the field. That tally came in just the second minute of action and was the eighth goal in district play this season for Richards.
The Lady Highlanders started the second half on a strong note as well as Richards once again found the back of the net with an assist from Shianne Knight. Caitlyn Hilburn added the final goal of the evening with about 15 minutes remaining.
“I told them at halftime that 1-0, 2-0 are very scary scores, and that we basically wanted to take them out of it quickly” Graves said. “When you score at the beginning of the half, you kind of take a little wind out of their sails. We needed to take care of our business, so it was just good for us to do that.”
The Woodlands has now outscored its district opponents 29-0 through six games. The Lady Highlanders are 6-0 against Montgomery dating back to 2015, but this was the smallest margin of victory for The Woodlands in those matchups.
Despite the loss, Montgomery coach Brandi Wilkinson was proud of the way her girls battled against a team that defeated them 8-0 just one month ago. The Lady Bears (4-2 in district play) will play host to College Park on Tuesday and will look to close out the regular season with some momentum.
Montgomery is aiming to qualify for the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 seasons with the only miss coming last year. Wilkinson believes her team can accomplish that goal if they stay focused down the stretch of their final season in Class 6A.
“We’ve never had that kind of result against The Woodlands, and we put up quite a fight.” Wilkinson said. “Their goals were three mistakes on our part that they were able to capitalize one, but I think The Woodlands was actually nervous at times that we were posing a threat that we never had before. We were able to shut down a lot of their key plays and key players to keep that score very low, and I’m very proud of the way the girls played tonight.”