The Lady Wildcats’ defense made sure of it, holding yet another opponent off the scoreboard. And with its 10th shutout of the season, Temple earned its biggest win in recent years to end six years of playoff frustration.
Temple knocked off Mesquite 1-0 on Tuesday night in a Class 5A bi-district girls soccer playoff to claim its first postseason win since 2002.
The Lady Wildcats (15-8-1) advance to face the winner between Richardson Berkner and Garland in the area round at an undetermined time and site.
“We attacked well for the first 15-20 minutes and that’s it,” Lady Wildcats coach Oscar Bersoza said. “Fortunately, that’s all we needed. We defend and we scrap for a goal. I don’t know what else to ask for out of these kids.”
Temple, which hadn’t scored a goal in two games, came out aggressive early.
The Lady Wildcats connected on one of their three first-half corner kicks thanks to Fogleman’s header in the 17th minute.
Temple’s Lauren Muniz got the first head on the corner, flicking it toward Fogleman, who leaped to make sure it found the back of the net.
“We practice this every day, going up, getting the second ball,” Fogleman said. “I did that and I just got lucky.”
That first-half stretch, though, was all the offense the Lady Wildcats would get against the Lady Skeeters (13-7-2).
Mesquite held the ball for much of the game’s final 60 minutes, hounding Temple’s defense and goalkeeper Abby Blunt. They turned away the Lady Skeeters’ 10 shots and thwarted eight corner kicks and two free kicks in the second half.
“Literally on our end, for 60 minutes, (Mesquite) brought it on us,” Bersoza said. “But we’re defending well and doing a great job.”
Playing solid team defense is what the Lady Wildcats pride themselves on. But spending all but 20 minutes of the match on the defensive end isn’t easy.
“There’s a lot of talking and communicating,” Fogleman said. “We just have a knack to know where to go.”
The Lady Wildcats tried to add to their lead in the second half but couldn’t hold the ball long enough to take the pressure off the defense.
Temple finished with five shots, three in the first half.
“In the playoffs, it’s hard to defend for that long,” Bersoza said. “These (kinds of wins) come few and far between, to defend and come out with a W.”
Now that they’ve escaped the round that’s seemingly had a hex on them in recent years, the Lady Wildcats say they aren’t about to go down quietly.
“This win is going to carry us,” Fogleman said. “We’re going to be very confident in our game on Friday.”
Said Bersoza: “It’s not over, and they know that. It’d be a shame to the psyche of how we’re playing right now to say, ‘This is enough.’”
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
