Marble Falls girls soccer loses to Copperas Cove

The Marble Falls High School girls soccer team lost to Copperas Cove 3-2 Dec. 15.

The Lady Mustangs (1-1) took the lead thanks to a Miley Bolanos goal on a free kick from Dulce Macias in the first half. Ashley Ferreira added the second goal in the second half when she found the back of the net and was unassisted for a 2-0 advantage.

But the Lady Dawgs added three goals in the final 15 minutes of the contest for the victory.

“They have a tall, strong squad with some girls who can rip a ball hard,” Marble Falls head coach Abigail Blunt said. “Last year we tied Cove 0-0, but we couldn’t get quality shots. We were able to develop more this year.”

Marble Falls had 9 shots on goal and 2 corner kicks, while Copperas Cove had 17 shots on goal and a corner kick. Possession of the ball was almost at 50-50..

Blunt noted the players faced slick rainy conditions throughout the contest and credited Liliana Benitez, Sachi Marcum, Irie Wallace, goalie Mia Trejo and Bolanos for continuing to battle throughout the match.

“We didn’t get down once Copperas Cove started scoring,” she said. “We kept an offensive mindset; we didn’t sit back and just defend and sit.”

She noted the Lady Dawgs are an improved program with plenty of natural traits that will serve the team well. And this contest will help her team, too, she added.

“I think the game was good for us,” she said. “Shows we can compete with harder teams, but we still have work to do to not let up or get comfortable in the last 10 minutes. Not the outcome we wanted, obviously, but (it) definitely (was) a quality game despite the conditions.”

The Lady Mustangs aren’t scheduled to return to the field until Dec. 30 when. they welcome Salado with the junior varsity playing at 1 p.m. and the varsity at 3 p.m.

“Ideally every coach wants to have a winning record going into Christmas,” Blunt said. “I think we got some wins (including scrimmages), which helped build confidence and chemistry, but I also think the loss did the same for us. We are confident in what each player is capable of. We saw some great plays out of Mia and Miley, which we haven’t seen yet. All of our players off the bench got quality minutes on the pitch — everyone played and got almost equal playing time — over the course of the three scrimmages. I think our tournaments are going to be a better look for us as we play more tough competition.”

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