Marble Falls boys soccer adds another district win to remain atop of standings

CAPTION: The Marble Falls Mustangs move to 4-0 in the District 25-4A standings thanks to another shutout. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School boys soccer team crushed Jarrell 6-0 Feb. 10 to stay in first place of the District 25-4A standings.

The Mustangs (12-4, 4-0) had multiple players contribute to the scoring.

Fernando Arreguin scored the first goals thanks to an assist by Jesus Cruz at the 39-minute-and-30-second mark.

Three minutes later, Cruz scored on a Charlie Brantley assist.

Marco Almazan gave the Mustangs a 3-0 half-time lead on an assist from Arreguin with 26:15 left in the first half.

In the second half, Cruz added the next goal on a header thanks to a corner assist by Almazan.

Esteban Dominguez found the back of the net with 22:05 left thanks to an assist from Victor Sanchez.

A Chris Hellen header was the final goal of the contest at the 9:55 mark. Almazan was credited with the assist.

Head coach Rick Hoover doesn’t take winning for granted.

“These games are hard,” he said. “When you’re clearly better than the other team, it challenges you not to play down. We played very well. I was not trying to score 15 goals. I had some freshmen and moved up some junior varsity kids. We had three freshmen on the field the whole second half. I was very pleased with the overall intensity.”

He was especially happy with the way the Mustangs passed the ball, pointing out they connected on 10-12 passes on most possessions throughout the contest.

“That’s hard to do in practice,” he said. “You can’t do that without intensity. You have to be bought in and focused. I thought the Jarrell goal keeper did a pretty good job. He had a bunch of saves.”

No matter who was on the field, the Mustangs kept the Cougars off the scoreboard. Hoover noted his team didn’t have mental lapses on their end of the field.

“It’s easy to give up a cheap goal because you have different personnel on the field,” he said. “The back-ups are on a different level. They did well. We have a strong defense. And they’re not just good defensively; they’re good soccer players.”

He credited Seth Parker and Brantley, who play outside back, and Juan Gomez for the Mustangs’ solid defensive play.

“They have come so far,” the coach said. “They helped change the dynamic of the team. Juan anchors the back line.”

Next up for Marble Falls is a home date with Burnet (3-1) Tuesday, Feb. 14, with the subvarsity at 5 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m.

“In my 10 years of being the Mustangs coach, I’ve never played Burnet as a varsity,” Hoover said. “We’ve played them as a junior varsity, but not as a varsity.”

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