Aledo and Southlake girls both advance in playoffs
Published 4/2/2008 10:34:54 AM by staff from fort worth star telegram
At halftime Tuesday, fans of the Grapevine girls soccer team unfurled a giant paper banner proclaiming: “We don’t believe in fairy tales,” with an X over a dragon. However, the wind shredded the banner before the Lady Mustangs could charge through it. It was most certainly a bad omen of things to come as Southlake Carroll scored in the second half for a 1-0 victory against Grapevine in the Class 5A Region I quarterfinal match.
“This is amazing,” Carroll midfielder Monica Alvarado said. “We were working so hard for this. This is what we wanted. This is what we were working for.”
The Lady Dragons advance to the Region I tournament, which begins Friday at Pennington Field. After a scoreless first half the match turned chippy with about 30 minutes remaining. A Grapevine foul about 35 yards from goal allowed Carroll a restart. Leslie Shurtleff launched the ball toward the backpost and Alvarado headed it home for the lone goal with 18:59 remaining. The first half featured Carroll with a stiff wind at their backs and the better of the opportunities. Alvarado played several beautiful passes to the forwards, who struggled to take advantage of them.
“I thought the first half was rough for us because we got in behind a couple times and just couldn’t get a shot off,” Carroll coach Matt Colvin said. “I think physically we dominated them a little bit in the middle tonight and that was the difference.” Grapevine and Carroll split in the district meetings with each side winning at home. “It was a hard-fought game. I’m proud of both teams,” Grapevine coach Ryan Davis said. “I thought that both teams had very few opportunities to score and Carroll had one and they were very opportunistic and did a great job of finishing to put it home and get that goal.”
Aledo girls 2, Canyon Randall 0
The Bearcats (25-1-2) advanced to the 4A Region I finals with a shutout of Canyon Randall, thanks to a pair of goals from senior forward Ashley Huhn. With leading scorer Taylor Gabbert unavailable due to card accumulation, freshman JV forward Stephanie Neeley earned her first varsity start and wasted little time making an impact. She centered a ball to midfielder Jordan Leech, who tapped it over for Huhn to push it past the keeper for the final goal of the match.
Label: Aledo soccer, Southlake soccer, Monica Alvarado, Ashley Huhn
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