Longview faced a critical regular season finale against Mount Pleasant on Tuesday night at Lobo Stadium, and improved its girls soccer playoff positioning with a 1-0 win.
The Lady Lobos will bring a 12-9-2 season record to next week’s University Interscholastic League Class 5A bi-district playoff match. They finished District 15-5A play with an 11-2-1 mark, and will represent the league as its top seed after Pine Tree beat Hallsville 4-3 in overtime.
Hallsville will take the second seed, and Pine Tree grabbed the third seed. Mount Pleasant, which dropped to 10-8-5 and 8-5-1, will be the fourth seed heading into the postseason.
“They keep trudging away and making things happen,” Longview girls soccer head coach Ron Bellamy said of how far his team has come since a slow start to the season. “We were in fourth place at the midway [point] of the season, and come back. They found a way to get that goal [on Tuesday], and held on and won the game. What a turnaround."
Longview controlled the time of possession throughout the first half, so it attempted multiple shots at the Mount Pleasant goal. Lily Fierros started the trend with a try at the 34:26 mark of the first half.
The Lady Lobos received important defense as well because Emma Wright earned a save at the 32:38 mark.
The home team flipped the field and continued to be aggressive because Karen Juarez shot left of the goal at the 29:58 mark, DaNaucia Johnson launched the ball over the goalpost at the 29:18 mark, and Yuli Alba kicked the ball left of the target at 22:35.
Mount Pleasant found enough space to setup Dana Memije’s shot at the 20:38 mark, but Wright recorded another save.
Longview continued to attack because Fierros attempted two shots and Kat Markowitz drilled another between the 14:54 and 11:53 marks of the half.
Wright also stepped up with a late save at the 8:20 mark of the half to maintain the scoreless match.
Mount Pleasant nearly took the lead in the final minute of the first half and in the first two minutes of the second half, but Longview’s defense tightened up to keep the ball out of the net.
Juarez tried a shot toward the net with 20:58 remaining in the match, but it also wasn’t successful.
Fierros then launched the ball at the 18:28 mark, but it just brushed the left side of the net.
Alba set herself up for an opportunity, but Jackie Gonzalez earned a save in front of the Mount Pleasant net to prevent a Longview goal.
The Lady Tigers kept feeling the pressure from Longview, but they also made more defensive plays. Jackie Gonzalez’s slide interfered with Johnson’s shot attempt at the 15:35 mark and the group also forced a block on Fierros’ shot at the 14:11 mark.
But, Longview eventually broke through for the game-winning goal when Fierros set up Johnson with 10:33 remaining in the match.
Wright earned another save at the 8:26 mark, and Gabriela Acevedo added a last minute block to help wrap up the win.
