GHS soccer beats Borger, gets first-ever playoff victory

[GHSlepfan]

History in the making

By JIM OTTS

Register Correspondent

WICHITA FALLS -- Gainesville High School demolished the Borger Bulldogs 5-0 Friday, giving the Leopards the bi-district title and the school's first-ever state soccer playoff victory.

The Cats had a clear advantage in speed, aggressiveness and foot skills and pressured the Bulldogs from the opening whistle even though the lads from West Texas played the first half with a stiff breeze at their backs.

The Leopards negated the head winds with passes through the open channels and two whizzing shots dinged the goal framework early.

Left forward Sergio Rodriguez made the Dogs pay for a defensive miscue, gathering the ball after Bulldog defender Zach Kaplan swung and missed on a clearance attempt and centering it for Omar Ochoa to finish.

The fourth minute goal might have been all they needed, but the Cats were not done.

Juan Franco and Steven Arenas combined for Gainesville's second with an effort worthy of clinical analysis. Franco won the ball in the midfield and held till the defense committed forward, then sent a through ball that Arenas ran onto behind the defense and to the right of goal.

Bulldog goalkeeper Josh Gutierrez charged off his line and Arenas placed the ball behind him into the lower left corner.

Ochoa persevered to give the Cats a 3-0 halftime lead, dribbling around two midfield Bulldogs and then feigning left to right several times to baffle the final three defenders. The Dogs were still looking to the left when Ochoa's shot hit the net inside the right upright.

The Memorial Stadium scoreboard read Bearcats 3, Bulldogs 0. The hosts knew the Leopards were playing, but the labels had been left from Thursday's playoff game between the Abilene Wylie Bulldogs and Aledo Bearcats and the Friday game reached the half before it could be changed.

"I liked it when we were the Bearcats because the Bearcats scored three in the first half and the Leopards just scored two in the second," coach Daniel Lundy quipped.

The Leopards did score three in the second half, but they were robbed of one.

Barely a minute into the second frame sweeper Juan Baltazar passed wide to Ochoa who chested the ball to the ground and then one-touched it completely across the pitch to Rodriguez.

Rodriguez pushed the ball ahead and raced by Borger's Andrew Mason to reach the Bulldog goalline where he dropped a pass to a trailing Brad Seatherton near the penalty kick mark. Seatherton redirected successfully, but the apparent goal was disallowed by an offside call from the assistant referee.

Several conditions have to be met before an offside call should be made and one of the foremost is the player receiving a pass from a teammate has to be ahead of the ball at the time of a pass. Seatherton was clearly behind Rodriguez and the ball.

Seatherton got another chance eight minutes later. Ochoa crossed a lofted pass into the keeper's box in front of the Bulldog goal and Seatherton trapped with his chest, dropped the ball first to a thigh, then to a foot and then past Gutierrez into the net.

Reserve forward Jakob Perryman added the final goal when a ball ping-ponged among a morass of Leopards and Bulldogs before springing free near the left end of the keeper box. Perryman used his first touch to get the ball past Gutierrez.

The Leopards had 27 shots on goal, 10 in the first half when they faced the wind and the other 17 when the wind assisted. One of those latter shots came from the foot of Gainesville keeper Josh Swirczynski whose clearance kick traveled 110 of the available 120 yards and had to be saved by the Bulldog netminder.

Borger managed nine shots on goal, but most were long tries on free kicks.

Swirczynski had six keeper saves and one of those was a dandy. Borger's Stephen Estrada rocketed a shot from close range that Swirczynski extended fully to tip over the crossbar late in the second half.

Borger threatened seriously once in the opening frame, with Adam Alexander getting possession inside the D at the Gainesville 18. Mauricio Puente closed in and took the ball off the forward's foot before he could unleash a shot.

The Leopards improve to 13-5-1 with the bi-district win and face El Paso Bowie, winners of District 4A-1, for the area round. That match is slated Tuesday in Odessa at 5:30 p.m.

[KTJ]

Congrats Leopards!

We were the first 3A school in the State to field a soccer team--I believe it was 1995.

[GHSlepfan]

I was on that team. 95-96

[KTJ]

I see that we lost to El Paso Bowie in the Regional Quarterfinal, 2-0. This was still a GREAT run by the soccer team, seeing as how we are a 3A school playing in 4A--a tough region at that.

[Phil C]

Great job in the playoffs by GHS! You are to be commended also for your leadership role in having the first AAA soccer team in the state.