Salado Lady Eagles are making their third trip to the 4A State soccer tournament after they beat Life Waxahachie 2-1 in the Region 1-4A Championship Sat. April 6.
Salado Lady Eagles will make their third appearance in the UIL State Soccer Tournament when they face the Boerne Lady Greyhounds at 1:30 p.m. April 10 at Birkelbach Field in Georgetown.
The Lady Eagles have had 24 shut outs this season. Their largest margin for victory was 11-0 over Lampasas in district play. The girls are 31-1 and 11-1 in district play.
To get to the state tournament, Salado beat five teams by a combined score of 19-3: Alvarado, 6-0; Decatur, 2-1; Fort Worth Benbrook, 5-1; Wichita Falls 4-0 and Waxahachie Life, 2-1.
Boerne is 22-1-3. This is the fifth state tournament appearance for the Lady Greyhounds. The Lady Greyhounds have had 17 shut outs this season. Their playoff run included four shut outs: Marble Falls, 2-0; La Vernia, 5-0; Wimberley 3-0; Corpus Christi London, 3-0 and Comal Davenport 3-2 in the Region finals.
State champions Celina return to the tournament with a 24-1-2 record. Their only loss was 2-1 to Grapevine. The Lady Bobcats have had 22 shut outs along the way. Their playoff run included wins over Sunnyvale, 3-0; Dallas Pinkston, 9-0; Aubrey, 5-2; Jacksonville, 2-0 and Frisco Panther Creek, 1-0.
They face 22-4 Lumberton in the semi-final round at 11 a.m. April 10. Their losses were all pre-distrcict to Humble Kingwood, Katy, Humble Atascosita and Cypress Ranch. They have had 16 shut outs including five in their playoff run: Huffman Hargrave, 7-0; Bellville, 4-0; WInnie East Chambers, 9-0; Bay City, 3-0 and Vidor, 1-0.
The 4A girls state finals will be 2:30 p.m. April 11.
Salado over Life Waxahachie 2-1
The Lady Eagles beat Life Waxahachie 2-1 in the Region 1-4A Championship Sat. April 6
Salado took an early lead when Izzy Blancaflor took Shelby Hollywood’s pass from the right side and headed it into the goal with 33:50 left in the first half.
Shortly after, Taylor Dabney made a save on a Life Waxahachie shot with 31:00 left in the first.
A minute later, Lexi Rice threatened to score for Salado, but was called for a foul in the Life Waxahachie penalty box instead.
Five minutes after that, Shelby Hollywood booted a shot at an empty goal from 25 yards away, but the gusting winds pushed it left of the mark.
Dabney made her second save of the first half with 21:30 left. Two minutes later, Life Waxahachie missed a shot.
Hollywood set up right of the goal with an attempt to pass to Blancaflor as she did earlier in the half, but the pass went over Blancaflor’s head to turn the ball over with 13:40 left in the half.
With 5:00 left in the first half, Sydney Lange missed a shot at goal for Salado and the Lady Eagles carried a 1-0 lead into the half.
It didn’t take long for the Lady Eagles to extend their lead as Hollywood took an assist from Sydney Lange to put Salado up 2-0 with 32 minutes in regulation.
About a minute later, Lange needled between defenders for a shot that was taken away by a foul against Salado.
Skylar Gardner had a booming free kick from 25 yards out that hit the crossbar, denying Salado once more with 27 minutes left in regulation.
Reese Lange missed a shot with 25:15 left to play as the Lady Eagles continued their relentless attack against Life Waxahachie.
Cassie Vargas’s shot was denied by Life Waxahachie goalkeeper Kaylee Wheaton with 19 minutes left.
Kenadi Smith’s shot went just left of the goal with 15:20 on the clock.
Life Waxahachie’s Zanae Nylund’s shot went just beyond the outstretched arms of Cambry Edmondson to close the score to 2-1 with 13:00 left in regulation.
Wheaton made another save, this time on Hollywood’s shot with 11:17 left to play.
A few seconds later, Smith took her next shot on goal, but Nylund was again there to keep the score within reach.
Life Waxahachie threatened to tie with 2:30 left to play but Nia Ruiz kicked the ball over the crossbar.
Sydney Lange missed a shot with 1:25 left.
With 50 seconds left in regulation, Life Waxahachie defended a corner kick by Salado, but could not advance the ball, giving Salado its one-point win.