The Temple Lady Wildcats found a way to hold the high-scoring Belton Lady Tigers to one of their lowest offensive outputs of the season. But once again, it didn’t matter. The Lady Wildcats just can’t seem to find the back of the net against their biggest rival.
Belton controlled Temple for a 3-0 win Friday night at Wildcat Stadium that helped the Lady Tigers extend their dominance over the Lady Wildcats and the rest of District 12-5A girls soccer.
The Lady Tigers’ 10th straight win and fifth consecutive shutout in the series gave them at least a share of the district title for the fifth straight season.
Belton (19-1-3 overall, 13-0 in 12-5A) can clinch the outright title with a win over second-place College Station A&M Consolidated on Tuesday night at Wilson-Kerzee Field.
“That’s what we’ve been pushing for the whole year, really,” said Belton coach Barry Elkins, whose Lady Tigers have clinched 12-5A’s No. 1 seed for the Class 5A state playoffs. “That was our single-minded focus.”
Temple (14-8-1, 8-5) already had clinched a playoff spot but needs a win Tuesday against fifth-place Killeen Ellison and a Bryan loss or tie in the Lady Vikings’ last two games to finish third.
“We didn’t do ourselves any favors today, going down three points,” Temple coach Oscar Bersoza said. “It’s obviously a team goal to finish in the third spot, but (finishing in fourth) makes things a little more complicated in the playoffs.”
The Lady Tigers’ three goals, two by sophomore Jourdan Brown, tied their lowest scoring output in district play, but that was more than enough breathing room against the Lady Wildcats.
Belton’s defense and goalkeeper Kelsi Darr held Temple to just three shots and turned away two free kicks from within 20 yards of the goal. The Lady Wildcats’ first shot didn’t come until nine minutes before halftime. By the end of Friday’s game, the Lady Wildcats’ scoreless streak against the Lady Tigers reached 400 minutes.
“It’s just that they’re tough to move the ball around on,” Bersoza said. “We couldn’t get much going on the attack.”
Though Temple played well against its rival at Wildcat Stadium, the Lady Wildcats couldn’t stop the Lady Tigers from seizing control early on the slick turf. Belton scored twice in the first 19 minutes on goals by Brown and Baylor signee Michelle Hagen for a 2-0 halftime lead. Brown scored again in the 54th minute, sneaking the ball into the top-right corner of the goal off a shot from more than 20 yards out.
“I thought we reacted real well to the ball,” Elkins said. “We were a step ahead, our thought process was a step ahead. I think (the slick turf) made a difference, maybe on touch or control, but we made the adjustment real well."
Considering that the Lady Tigers had scored 10 goals or more in three straight games, Bersoza called his team’s defense “exceptional.”
“We don’t play to lose and it sucks, but to hold a scoring machine like these guys to three says something about our team defending,” Bersoza said.
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
