Sweeny-Columbia boys soccer team battle to 1-1 tie

SWEENY — Saturday’s District 24-4A boys soccer game between the Brazosport Exporters and Sweeny Bulldogs looked more like a battle between two evenly matched teams rather than the top team in the district against the fifth-place squad, respectively.

A pair of late first-half goals, one by each team, was all the scoring in the 1-1 contest at Bulldog Stadium.

It was Brazosport’s first nonvictory in district play as the Ships dropped to 9-0-1 in district, but remained in first place. They are 11-8-2 overall. Sweeny improved to 2-6-2 in district and 4-11-2 overall.

“It’s huge,” Sweeny head coach Jesse Herrera said. “It’s huge for our program. It shows the tenacity of our team. We are one of the bottom teams in the table, but we’re going to play like we are with everybody and that is a testament to the kids’ wills and tenacity as far as how they have played all year.”

The first 32 minutes of the game was loaded with missed opportunities for both teams as the Bulldogs outshot the Ships, 9-7. Both goalkeepers saw plenty of action.

Brazosport had a shot go high and bounce off the football field goal crossbar. Sweeny had several shots go either just wide or over the goal.

Finally, with 7:04 remaining in the first half, the Bulldogs broke through. Trey Robbins headed in a throw-in to give Sweeny a 1-0 lead.

However, the Bulldogs weren’t able to keep the Ships off the scoreboard in the last seven minutes of the opening period. With 3:33 left, Alfredo Guel scored off an assist from Antonio Gonzalez to tie the game at 1.

“There was just a little bit of a letdown right there,” Herrera said. “Sometimes that stuff happens and you just have to play through it. We played our tails off today.”

Defense dominated the second half as neither team was able to put the ball in the back of the net. The Ships outshot the Bulldogs, 11-10.

Sweeny tried multiple times to get a head on the ball off a corner kick, but they missed their mark. Brazosport had a few similar missed opportunities.

The game was more defensive than the first meetings between the two teams, which was won by Brazosport, 4-3.

“For whatever reason, we always try to go at everybody,” Herrera said. “We did switch up a little bit something that we do on defense that helped us out. Credit to them, they are a good team. That is why we needed to get a goal early and then play from there.”

In the closing seconds, Sweeny’s Mavrick Henderson was driving toward an empty Brazosport goal and fired a shot that went wide as the buzzer sounded.

“I thought the boys played exceptionally well today,” Herrera said. “They really came out fired up because they knew we were playing the No. 1 team in the district. We told them right from the beginning, if we go out and score early, we have a chance. That’s what they did. They played exceptionally well today. They got after it.”

Both teams are off until March 18. Brazosport will host Wharton while Sweeny will play at Bay City