PLAYOFF PUSH
Fri, 2016-03-11 05:00
News Staff
Lady Dawg soccer downs Heights, Shoemaker to earn first-ever No. 3 seed in the playoffs
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The Copperas Cove Lady Dawgs’ soccer program has seen its share of regular season success, only to have the door closed by the No. 1 team of whatever district they were opposing that season.
That narrative may change this year as the Lady Dawgs’ strong finish down the stretch with 2-1 wins over Harker Heights last Friday in Heights and Shoemaker at home Tuesday to earn the first-ever No. 3 seed in the playoffs after years of fourth-place finishes.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Cove assistant soccer coach Chelsea Letzer-Spoor. “Being able to finish third for the first time in the history of the program is a really great feeling to be a part of that. We weren’t sure at the beginning of the season because we had a couple games we should’ve won but we tied.”
The Lady Dawgs clinched their playoff spot with Friday’s win over Heights but cemented themselves in that third spot with their home win over the Lady Wolves on Tuesday for senior night.
Senior Ali McBride made sure she did her part with one of her many goals this year from penalty kicks
“It’s just the luck of the draw getting the penalty kicks and luck has been in our favor so that’s really good,” said McBride.
The midfielder/forward found herself in a familiar place to give the Lady Dawgs an early lead against the Lady Wolves. Battling for position in the box, McBride was tackled from behind by Shoemaker’s Shawnae Taylor, to set up the easy penalty kick to the back right of the net past keeper Diedre Ginnie in the 12th minute.
The Lady Dawgs (6-4-2) had several other looks at the net in the first half.
McBride missed on a shot in the first minute and senior Ale Ross was just off the mark in the seventh minute for McBride broke the scoreless tie with 27:50 on the clock.
McBride had two more shots on goal within the next 56 seconds of game clock but could not find nylon.
Shots on goal by senior Nala House and Junior Jordan Campbell closed out the first half with Cove holding a narrow 1-0 lead.
Junior Darlene Cruz added the Lady Dawgs’ second goal of the contest in the 57th minute when Shoemaker keeper Ginnie over-pursued and left Cruz all alone for the unassisted score for the 2-0 Cove advantage.
Shoemaker made Cove fans a little nervous with a goal in the 66th minute by Andrea Corpus-Almendarez and another pair of attempts in the 68th minute.
The Lady Dawgs defense staved off the Lady Wolves to claim victory on senior night and lock up the third spot behind Belton and Midway, who again tied to stay co-leaders of District 12-6A.
“It feels great,” said McBride. “I’ve made it (to the playoffs) in the past and it’s a lot of fun so I’m really looking forward to this year. It’s a great opportunity for us. I believe this is Cove’s first year to finish in third place. We get to play the second-place team and that should make better odds for us. We’re really excited and we hope we can make it to the second round.”
Aggressive play and an offensive-minded approach has really made a difference in helping the team increase it’s playoff chances with a higher seeding, says Spoor.
“We’ve been working really hard on scoring,” she said. “Starting out this year, we went to a couple of hard tournaments to get some quality competition in. Every time we would finish, we’d say, ‘we’re better than the score.’ We were playing really hard. We just weren’t capitalizing and finishing so we’ve been working a lot on finishing. Last week, we played our hearts out (to clinch the playoff spot) and this week, we wanted to honor our seniors and the girls played hard for their seniors.”
They will have to capitalize on every opportunity in the postseason as the competition is stiff. The Lady Dawgs are set to face 11-6A’s Rockwall Lady Jackets, who are currently 10-2-0 and second in district behind Class 6A No. 2-ranked Sachse (18-0-1, 12-0).
“We just have to finish opportunities that present themselves,” said Spoor. We’re going to face some tougher competition so we have to capitalize when the opportunity is there.”
Spoor credits her seniors for achieving the program’s highest playoff seeding.
“This senior class is very special,” she said. “If anyone has ever listened to them talk for more than five minutes, you’d know they were a special class. They are eight players that mean a lot to this team and a lot of them have been on varsity for multiple years. They bring a lot of good leadership to this team and we’re really going to miss them.”
The future also looks bright with the plethora of young players that litter the roster.
“This is a really young team so we’re looking forward the years to come with them,” said Spoor.
McBride thinks they have what it takes.
“This is a pretty young team,” she said. “Besides us seniors, most of them are freshmen and sophomores and I believe they are going to play a huge role and I believe they can take care of things in the future.”
As for now, a win in their warm-up game against at team to be determined at home on March 22 would send the Lady Dawgs into their playoff game on a three-game win-streak.
“We’re looking forward to our warm-up game,” said Spoor. “We’re hoping we can get a third win heading into the playoffs.”