Marble Falls girls soccer is second in district

CAPTION: Sachi Marcum (21) keeps her eye on the ball as Briseah Rivera (18) and AJ Doerr (13) give her room to work during the Lady Mustangs’ win against Lago Vista. Photo by Shaunna Marcum/Mixed Media Artist Photographer Designer at ShaunnaLisa, Cliffhanger Loop Productions

The Marble Falls High School girls soccer team beat Lago Vista 1-0 Feb. 16 after losing to Burnet 3-0 Feb. 13 and shutting out Jarrell 4-0 Feb. 9.

The Lady Mustangs are 5-1 in District 25-4A play and in second place.

Lago Vista’s game plan gave the Lady Vikings what they believed was their best chance at success.

“We played well,” Marble Falls head coach Abigail Blunt said. “Lago Vista did what we call packing the bus. You know it as packing the box. They kept all their players in front of the goal (It was defending). Their keeper made some incredible saves. When they do it well, it works.”

The coach noted that at least 70 percent of the match forced the Lady Vikings to be on defense. Blunt added that even the officials were impressed by the Lago Vista goal keeper.

“We missed the goal by inches in some opportunities. They did their job,” she said. “We gave up some fouls. They got opportunities on our goal.”

Ashley Ferreira scored the game’s only goal when she beat the goal keeper one on one in the first half.

In the final 20 minutes of the match, officials gave Marble Falls a red card, forcing the Lady Mustangs to have only 10 players on the field. Blunt had been moving players to different positions with the aim of creating more depth, so they’re used to adjusting as the circumstances during the match forced more changes.

“We put players in positions they don’t normally play,” the coach said. “They stepped into roles they don’t normally play.”

Blunt didn’t mince word on the importance of beating Lago Vista to begin the second round of district play.

“It’s big,” she said. “Coming off the Burnet game, it’s how you represent. A win’s a win. For us we saw some positive play. We saw some really good play out of the girls. The girls responded really well. I think that shows.”

As she thought back to the Burnet match, Blunt said she saw some positives from her players.

“I think the girls played well,” she said. “I think we had opportunities that we didn’t put away. They had some great hits on two of their goals. They put the ball away on some crazy shots.”

She noted that when she uploaded the film to a sports software that breaks it down into statistics, the possession of the ball was nearly at 50 percent for each squad.

The matchup against Burnet was for first place in the district. That’s because Marble Falls took care of Jarrell a match earlier.

“They played decent,” Blunt said. “It felt like we had a thousand opportunities. We shot 80 percent of our shots to the keeper.”

Madison Hardaway scored two goals, while Miley Bolanos and Suzena Perez each scored one. Haley France, Hannah Welch, Bolanos and Perez also each had an assist.

Marble Falls travels to play at Georgetown Gateway at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb.20.

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