It’s really a question of when for the Lady Mustangs soccer team (12-4-4, 9-0 in District 6-5A). Prior to Tuesday’s game against Irving, Grapevine had not surrendered a goal in its previous five games.
The shutout string has included Trinity, MacAthur, Nimitz, L.D. Bell and Colleyville Heritage.Plus, the program clinched a playoff spot. As the week began, Grapevine had 27 points, while fourth-place Colleyville Heritage had 12 with five matches to play. Even if the Lady Mustangs lost their last five and the Lady Panthers won their last five, Grapevine would still be in the postseason, because it won both meetings.Eventually, that shutout streak will end. But head coach Ryan Davis likes the way the offense has picked it up as the team now owns a two-game lead over Trinity in the race for the district championship. The Lady Mustangs scored eight goals between their wins over Bell and Colleyville Heritage.“The improvement in both matches was fantastic,” Davis said. “Our speed of play and ball movement are the two biggest things. We’ve started to talk about and preparing for the playoffs. We really need to be playing our best soccer.”For Colleyville Heritage, you know a team is improving when in one week the coach calls a performance the best he has seen all season, followed by him making the same remark the next week.That’s what Colleyville Heritage coach Misail Tsapos did when it came to describing the 3-0 win over Carroll R.L. Turner on Feb. 19 and then the 3-0 win over Euless Trinity on Feb. 26.The Lady Panthers (4-8-6, 3-3-3 in District 6-5A) were precise in the way they attacked the Lady Trojans and repaid a 3-1 loss from the first meeting. The win was followed by a 3-0 loss to Grapevine on Friday. Of course, Grapevine is the district leader, but Tsapos believed his team played a good game. The Lady Mustangs were just better. Sometimes, that’s just the way it is.“Against Trinity, that was about as perfect as we have played this year,” Tsapos said. “And I know I said that against Turner. But we executed and were in the right spots for our passing. We scored goals. I was really happy with what I saw. I thought if we could get through Trinity, that would really go a long way for us.”On defense, Colleyville Heritage had strong play from the back four including Morgan Reinhart and Logan Brandt. Tsapos liked the way the quartet denied passing lanes.The split kept the Lady Panthers alone in fourth place in the standings and holding on to that final playoff spot. They had 12 points followed by Irving, which had 11. They played at Irving MacArthur Tuesday and play host to Irving on Friday. Colleyville Heritage played scoreless ties against those two squads in the first meetings.But the good thing about Colleyville Heritage’s bounce back from a tough non-district schedule is that it has picked up two of its four wins against district leaders. Still, Tsapos takes a guarded position when it comes to his team. It’s a maturing group with the chance of not growing from big moments.“We’ve been more businesslike in the way we have done things,” Tsapos said. “We’ve preached about treating it like a business and making sure we do what we’re supposed to do. If we can get six points [this] week, we’re going to be in fantastic shape.“But this team can’t talk about six points. We just have to talk about three points and move on to the next game.”Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
