San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Dominguez, defense lead Panthers into regional semis
Friday’s game
Coming into Friday night’s Class 6A regional-quarterfinal match against Taft, the O’Connor girls soccer team had an 0-1-1 record against the Raiders this season, drawing 2-2 at O’Connor in February and losing a 2-1 decision at Taft in mid-March.
However, it was O’Connor that won the match that mattered most, as the Panthers scored three goals in the first half and made it stand, beating Taft 3-1 to advance to the regional semifinals next week. O’Connor (222-2) will take on Austin Westlake (17-3) at 1 p.m. April 8.
“These girls put in the hard work everyday, and this win tonight shows that hard work really does pay off,” said O’Connor coach Olivia Flores. “They came out here tonight with something to prove after the two previous matches this year and they showed they have talent. I can’t be more proud of them as a coach.”
Taft (16-5-4) looked like it had broken the scoring ice in the 13th minute when Jordan Matthews headed in a MaKyla Peterson direct kick that had gone off the crossbar, but the assistant referee ruled Matthews was offsides, nullifying the goal and keeping the match scoreless.
O’Connor broke through in the 18th minute, when at 17:08, Nia Leslie was knocked over in the penalty area, giving the Panthers a free kick. Malia Dominguez converted the penalty kick to put O’Connor up 1-0. Just under 10 minutes later, the Panthers doubled their lead when Leslie executed a perfect volley into the back of the net off a direct kick on the right wing.
O’Connor added one more goal before halftime, when at 35:19, Dominguez got loose about 15 yards out and sent a shot into the top-right corner of the goal, making it 3-0 Panthers at the break.
Taft coach Scott Davis said despite the big halftime deficit, he thought his team had a comeback in it.
“Both times we played them this season, we trailed,” said Davis, whose team had a five-match winning streak snapped with the loss. “We thought we could come back again tonight. We got one back, but they snuffed out any chances that we had to get a second one.”
Taft got its goal at 47:51 when Adryanna Guerra got some space in the O’Connor penalty area and buried a shot in the lower-right corner of the net to get the Raiders on the board at 3-1. However,
O’Connor’s defense stiffened over the last 30-plus minutes, and the Panthers avenged a loss and a draw from their 2022 record in advancing to the next round.
“When we talked at halftime, we talked about being more defensive in the second half,” said Flores, whose team has won three straight and is now 11-1-1 in its last 13 matches. “We didn’t want to be content with the numbers of goals we had, but we didn’t want to overextend ourselves trying to get another goal.”
Davis was disappointed his team was unable to knock off O’Connor, but said the Raiders have plenty to be proud of in their 2022 campaign.
“We lost seven starters off last year’s team and we only started two seniors tonight,” said Davis. “We thought this year might not be a rebuilding year, but we thought we might take a small step backwards. However, we got to the third round of the playoffs, and we may have exceeded expectations a little bit, but that gives the group coming back next year a higher bar to clear. We’ve got a great group coming back, and I think they’re capable of doing some great things.”