Marble Falls soccer hosts weekly 7-on-7 matches on Tuesdays

Another sport is enjoying the benefits of 7-on-7, and soccer fans don’t have to travel far to witness it.

Each Tuesday at 5 p.m. throughout the month of June, area high school players are stopping at Mustang Stadium, 2101 Mustang Drive in Marble Falls, for a night of co-ed soccer where each team must have four girls on the field at all times. The field is divided in half, which allows two contests to be played at once. Teams either play four 10-minute quarters or two 20-minute halves. At the half, teams switch sides.

This version of 7-on-7 is the creation of Lady Mustangs head coach Abigail Blunt. Teams from Burnet, Lago Vista, Jarrell, and two teams from Florence and from Lampasas join Marble Falls in playing two games before leaving around 8 p.m.

Burnet and Marble Falls played to a 4-4 tie. Then Burnet played a team that had a mix of Jarrell and Lago Vista players that allowed Burnet to take advantage.

“This is brand new for us,” Burnet Lady Dawgs head coach Kim Myhre said. “Growing up, I always played indoor, which is similar. This is new for any team I’ve coached. I’m glad we had a lot of girls. It’s good to see the boys out there, too.”

Just like the American football version of 7-on-7, coaches can only observe.

“They have refs, who are Marble Falls graduates,” Myhre said. “I really do think it’ll help with the speed of play. They’re getting ball touches and playing together.”

Myhre was able to see where she’d like Burnet to improve, which had mostly juniors. Top of the list are touch passes. She noted the girls needed some time to adjust to the boys’ quickness and happy to see them do that in no time.

“They got comfortable with how they were going to shoot the ball,” she said. “I think for 7-on-7, it’s good to get touches and to adjust to the speed of the game. These are smaller fields, so it’s faster.”

The Lady Dawgs are coming off a historical season where they reached the Class 4A Region III tournament for the first time in program history. But Myhre made it clear there’s no resting in past accomplishments and believes this June league will help drive that home.

“I want them to still be hungry,” she said. “I don’t want them to be satisfied. I want them to be hungry and getting to strength and conditioning and getting to the extra stuff. I want them to be great. We want more gold balls. It’s fun to watch when they’re bought in.”

Myhre summed up the feelings of other coaches in thanking Blunt.

“I’m really thankful she put this together,” she said. “It’s nice to see the kids go out there and play. It’s literally fun.”

Watch videos on Highland Lakes sports by going to Fierro’s YouTube channel and searching for The Broad Podcaster. Please like, subscribe and share.