It never gets old when it comes to the Carroll girls playing soccer in the postseason. With a pair of victories last week over Keller Timber Creek and Richland, the Lady Dragons (20-2, 9-1 in 4-5A) clinched a postseason berth for the 12th consecutive season.
Carroll has 27 points, followed by Keller at 22. Keller Timber Creek is in third with 18 points. Then it’s a scramble for fourth place between Keller Central, Richland and Justin Northwest.“We had 75 goals returning from last year and a group of seniors determined to get this program back to the state tournament,” coach Matt Colvin said. “We expected to have a pretty good offensive output.“It’s refreshing to know they have the drive to make a deep run. The goals are always to make the playoffs and go for a district title. We’re trying to peak as the right time.”What makes this offense as good as billed is its diversity. Colvin likes the fact that the scoring can come from anywhere on the field and that the team doesn’t have to rely one person. Hence, Meghan Murphy recorded a hat trick (three goals) against Richland. Conversely, the team has the flexibility to win 5-0 and 1-0.“There’s a lot of individual creativity with this group,” he said. “They have the skills to create their own chances.”Then there is senior Sophie Groff, who is arguably the most prolific scorer in Tarrant County. She has 22 to lead the team. Carroll has scored 60 goals thus far and has four more regular season games to play and the unknown number of postseason games.“The biggest thing about Sophie is that she’s really good in one-on-one situations,” Colvin said. “She deals with a lot of double teams. But she has a very good sense of who is defending her.”Signing the dotted lineIn case you missed it, this program had six players sign national letters of intent to continue their soccer careers in college.They were: Groff (South Carolina), Julia Dyche (Texas), Murphy (TCU), Tori Stephens (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), Taylor Valentine (Coastal Carolina) and MaKayla Braun (Oklahoma City University).“This is a very competitive area for youth soccer, so this is just a result of kids wanting to strive to be the best,” Colvin said. “That’s pretty typical in what you see here, Coppell, Plano West and Highland Park. It helps that soccer is the No. 1 youth sport in the country.”Time offWhen the district coaches got together making up the schedule, they had to deal with some down time. With the University Interscholastic League pushing the overall athletic calendar back a week it meant things had to be done differently.With TAKS testing this week, the coaches agreed to take Tuesday off and then return to action this Friday. Carroll will play Northwest on Friday and then Keller on Monday. That’s the start of spring break week. The district will take the rest of the week and return March 19.“It’s never a fun time of year when this happens,” Colvin said. “But the good thing is that we can focus on our training.”Briefly …Junior starting right defender Jordan Connors is out for the season with a torn ACL. The injury happened about two weeks ago. Colvin will be looking at sophomore Kylie McBride and freshman Allie Luna (younger sister of former Carroll star Aaron Luna) before settling on a starter when the playoffs begin.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
