Soccer season ends in regional finals

For a few minutes, it looked like the Wimberley Texan girls’ soccer team was in the midst of a comeback for the ages, but a late goal but by Calallen sent Wimberley home in the UIL 4A Regional Finals for the third consecutive playoffs just one game shy of the state tournament.

After falling behind 1-0 early in the game, things got back on the right foot with a goal by Emily Thames just before halftime. It was an important goal, because Calallen hadn’t allowed a single goal in the previous 17 games.

“In their previous 17 games, they had scored 151 and let in zero,” Wimberley Girls’ Soccer Coach Brinton Nute said. “They came in as a pretty highly regarded team.”

That made the next few minutes of game time even tougher. Calallen started the second half out fast scoring two goals to take a 3-1. Being down two goals to a team that had only given up seven goals all season, outscoring opponents 169-7 coming into the game, seemed insurmountable. At least it did for the people who weren’t on the field.

“Holly Harwood’s positivity in the team this year was just infectious,” Nute said. “When she says ‘We’ve got this’ there is a sense of belief. Sometimes you can say ‘We’ve got this’ and you can tell the person doesn’t meant it. Every time she said it, she had the self believe that the team could come back. There was a sense of belief when she said it.”

Over the next 25 minutes, Wimberley tried to climb a mountain that most wouldn’t have thought possible. A second goal by Thames allowed that belief to grow a little bit. Then, with 10 minutes left in the game, Harwood followed through with a goal on a header from a corner kick to tie the game up.

“That is the epitome of how we have been this year,” Nute said. “Having such a strong district, where every game was a close game, that put us in good stead for this game. We never gave up. We always thought we had a chance. To get it back to 3-3 is a testament to the character of the girls.”

However, it wasn’t a fairytale ending for Wimberley. The Texans were on the other side of the storybook finale. With six minutes left in the game, Calallen Wildcat Jillian Curtis scored to take the final lead of the game. The win has been called historic as it is the first time a team from the Coastal Bend will make it to the state semifinals in boys or girls soccer since the UIL started high school soccer 40 years ago.

The game was preceded by a strong 5-0 victory over London Corpus Christi. Lexi Howell, Sunny Jones and Emily Thames all scored one goal in the game with Holly Harwood scoring two. Wimberley was up 4-0 at halftime.

“Sunny Jones has been injured most of the season,” Nute said. “She came back towards the end of district, and it was great to see her get on the scoreboard on Tuesday. She wanted to score all season, and she worked really hard to get back on the field. That was her first goal of the year, and it was great to see her celebrating with her teammates.”

Wimberley finished the year with a 25-7-1 season as Regional Finalists. This is the third consecutive season, not counting last year’s COVID-canceled season, that Wimberley has made it to the Regional Finals.