Klein dictated the course of the match from start to finish, getting to almost every free ball and staying on the offensive en route to a 7-0 victory over Belton in a Class 5A area-round boys soccer playoff Friday night at Eagle Field.
The Tigers (15-8-1) were unable to muster much of an attack and had their season and five-game winning streak ended. The Bearkats (17-2-2), who won state titles in 1997, 1999 and 2005, advanced to face Klein Oak or Round Rock Stony Point in a Region II quarterfinal.
“They were just so much better, and that was the difference,” Belton coach Tarcisio Mosnia said. “It wasn’t so much a matter of our guys making mistakes or not making things happen as it was their players making great plays and keeping us on the defensive.”
The Tigers produced the game’s first scoring chance - a long-distance shot by Vincent Crepeau - but it was one of only two first-half shots by Belton. Conversely, the Bearkats had tallied 17 shots by halftime and had made good on two of them.
Josh Roman’s goal made it 1-0 at the 25-minute mark and Steven Drier’s header 19 minutes later gave Klein a 2-0 halftime lead, despite nine first-half saves by Tigers goalkeeper Manuel Amaya.
“It’s frustrating when you’re used to getting 20 touches a game and then have a game like this,” said Belton leading scorer Josh Caffey, who came in with 31 goals but rarely had the ball at his feet Friday. “Klein did a great job. Their offense was a great defense, because we can’t score when we don’t have the ball.”
The relentless pressure continued after intermission and the floodgates finally opened.
Grant Marcantel drilled a goal from 20 yards out, and Alan Cowthran scored on a breakaway 2 minutes later to make it 4-0 with 22:30 remaining. Carlos Peralta headed a pass home 6 minutes later, and Cristian Giron and Hunter Lipman had one goal each in the final 5 minutes for the final tally.
“It took a lot of effort for us to get to this point,” Mosnia said. “This playoff experience this year will help us next year.”
The Tigers, who had only two returning starters from last year’s regional quarterfinalist team in Caffey and Crepeau, will lose only two senior starters - Crepeau and Jorge Frias.
“We worked really hard this year to get this far,” Caffey said. “Not many people thought we would make it, not even us. It was a great accomplishment to get here, and then we ran into a really good team.”
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
