City soccer squads head into playoffs

When the Bryan Vikings opened District 12-5A soccer with a 2-3-1 record, their postseason placement was unimportant.

They just wanted to survive. Instead, they have thrived.

After a week off for spring break, Bryan returned with two big wins to qualify for the playoffs, and jump in front of A&M Consolidated for second place. Bryan plays its bi-district match against Mesquite Horn at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Waco ISD Stadium.

The Viking scored three straight goals to rally for a 3-2 win in Temple Friday, getting goals from Jose Cortes, Arnoldo Garcia and Fabian Guerrero.

The chance to leapfrog A&M Consolidated into second got a huge set-up Tuesday when Bryan upset Belton 2-1. Belton had entered the game ranked fifth nationally in the ESPN-Rise poll and the Tigers were unbeaten on the season.

"I thought we came out flat against Temple because of the win over Belton," said Bryan coach Tommie Allmon. "Our kids peaked emotionally there. But that set us up to mess things up."

For everyone else. The Vikings have won seven of their last eight games.

While the win over Belton was a self-affirming victory, winning at Temple was a milestone.

"We had never won in Temple, never at any point," Allmon said. "We had never beaten them twice in a season, and we did those two things on the same night. We've beaten them at our place numerous times, but they always came back and beat us. They did the same thing to us that we did to Belton one year. We went into Temple at 12-0 in district and came out 12-1 and end up 13-1 in district."

Moving up the playoff ladder may help, and Bryan does carry momentum into bi-district.

"The momentum is good, but in the district we are playing, they are all tough," Allmon said. "That's just a good district. A lot of their scores are very low-scoring games, so [playoff spots] two, three or four is going to be the same game.'

While Guerrero keys the Vikings with 13 goals and 12 assists, Bryan's scoring has been balanced. Fellow senior Alex Cruz has nine goals and seven assists. Bryan's leading goal-scorer is a junior, Cortes, who has found the net 14 times. Garcia has eight goals, while Jose Falcon and Eduardo Garcia each have five.

Bryan plays a Mesquite Horn team with a strong defense, one that likes to counterattack.

"The way they set up, you can see that they are defensive and that they will play out of that defense," Allmon said.

The second-place finish was the best by a Bryan team since the 2005 team won the district title. Bryan has qualified fourth each of the last two years but has been held scoreless in bi-district matches.

The winner between Bryan and Mesquite Horn draws either defending state champion Dallas Jesuit or Garland Naaman Forest.

Mesquite Horn is involved in both ends of a soccer doubleheader Tuesday at Waco ISD Stadium

The A&M Consolidated Lady Tigers, fresh off their momentum-building win over Belton Friday, plays in the first game against 11-5A's third-place Horn (11-8-1) at 6 p.m. Blake Martin scored the only goal at Tigerland Stadium Friday to give A&M Consolidated a share of the district crown. Martin headed in a corner kick. Christina Salas had five save in goal to pick up the shutout.

While Consol's win tied Belton with one loss in district play, the Belton Lady Tigers clinched the top spot with a better goal difference. A&M Consolidated allowed four goals in 14 games in 12-5A. Belton scored three of those in the first meeting. A&M Consolidated posted 12 shutouts.

Horn closed district with a pair of wins, taking the third district spot. Brooke Hill and Courtney King scored goals in a 2-1 upset of second-place Longview. Horn closed out the regular season with a 3-0 win over Mesquite last Tuesday. Hill, Carmen Koster and Megan Koppedge scored for Horn.

Three of their the Lady Jaguars' losses in 6-4 district season were by one goal.

The winner will move into area play against either Garland or Lake Highlands.

Confusion over the day that the A&M Consolidated Tigers were scheduled to play Longview led to a major shuffling of their game. Lobos coach James Wright has reserved Corsicana Tiger Stadium for Monday night. The Tigers wanted a Tuesday night game, and it will now be played at 8 p.m. in Lufkin.

Longview has a record of 18-3-1 and was second in District 11-5A with a 7-2-1 mark. When Bryan won its final two games, and A&M Consolidated lost both, the Vikings moved ahead of the Tigers into second place.

The Longview News-Journal reported that Wright tried to scout Friday when his Lobos had an open date. He watched Harker Heights against Copperas Cove and Temple against Bryan, but came back empty on personal scouting notes. A&M Consolidated lost to Belton 6-1 that evening, when Belton's Tayron Martin scored four times.

The winner will meet either Dallas W.T. White or McKinney Boyd, who play Tuesday at 8 at Loos Stadium.

At the Class 4A boys area round, Brenham defeated Caney Creek 3-1 in bi-district play Friday. That puts the Cubs into the area round against Beaumont Central. The teams play Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Humble's Charles Street Stadium.

The Cubs (23-1-5) scored twice off corner kicks in the win over Caney Creek to salt away the win. Dominique Davis scored off a Tanner Schmidt corner and Schmidt also had a corner kick glance off a defender for the final goal.

Beaumont Central was a 7-6 overtime winner over Livingston.

The Brenham-Central winner will play either Nederland or Montgomery in the sectional round.