PHOTO BY A.L. SHAFF Texan striker Jack Cole goes up for a header while defended by a Bandera player. The Texans Won 4-1 and will begin cross district play this Thursday against Liberty Hill, a powerful team with a record of 17-2-3.
PHOTO BY A.L. SHAFF Brian Schmidt goes up to head the ball for the Texans.
Boys soccer gets win on Senior Night
Wimberley boys’ soccer team defeated Bandera 4-1 last Friday in the last regular season game before cross-district games begin and run into regional playoffs.
Only three minutes into the first half, Jack Cole scored. Minutes later, Cole scored again when a Bandera defender misplayed a long drive that bounced over his head then Cole neatly lifted it over the goalkeeper’s head for his second goal. Both goals in the first half were set up by pin-point passing by the Wimberley players. The first half ended 2-0 with Wimberley dominating the play.
In the second half, Bandera kept trying to drive long kicks into the Texan box with hopes of a “gift” goal off a Texan mistake. But each time Bandera failed to score, the Texans came back with sharp passing and dominating play. At that point, Texan coach Antoun freely subbed in fresh players
But Bandera wasn’t finished yet. Early in the second half, the Bulldogs worked the ball into the Texans’ zone and lifted the ball into the box. The ball bounced off Texan the keeper’s hand right to a Bandera player who headed it in for the score. Texans 2, Bandera 1 and suddenly it looked as if the game could get tight
Then, with ten minutes left in the game, two sweet passes by Texan midfielders gave Grant Cole a chance to slide a perfect pass to Alan Hernandez near the goal mouth and Hernandez tapped in the third Wimberley goal.
Late in the game and trailing 3-1, Bandera began to resort to rough play to get back into the game. That backfired as a handball call against a Bandera player resulted in a penalty kick for the Texans.
Defender Bryan Maguire used the chance to score his first goal of the season with a perfectly driven shot. Texans 4, Bandera 0.
As time ticked down in the last three minutes, the referees awarded a penalty kick to Bandera but the Bulldogs’ forward shot wide and the game ended 4-1. With this win, the Texans raised their season record to 12-9-1 with a district 24 record of 4-3-1 and fourth place. After the game, Antoun told his players, “We made the playoffs and that was our first goal. That’s the end of the first phase. Now phase two begins for us.”
In upcoming bi-district play, the Texans will play cross-district champion Liberty Hill whose district record stands at 8-0 as the top seed. The neutral site for that game has not been set.