Lady Indians shooting for second

By Randy Sachs

Special to The Keller Citizen

If there’s a good time for spring break, maybe Keller found it.

Last week gave the Lady Indians girls soccer team a little mental and physical recovery time, coming off a tough 1-0 loss to Carroll.

Now, with a little time off under their belt, Keller preps for their last two games of the regular season before heading into the playoffs.

The key for Keller, though, is what seed they’ll take into the postseason.

Two obstacles were in the way of a second place finish in District 4-5A behind leader, Carroll.

Timber Creek was the first hurdle on Tuesday, played after the print deadline.

The final game on Friday is at Richland.

The Timber Creek game was to be the big event, though. The Lady Falcons are just a point behind Keller in the standings.

Central is in third, but Keller owns the tiebreaker against the Lady Chargers.

“We are desperate for the second seed,” said Keller head coach Billy Griffiths. “We’re keeping an eye on the other district (3-5A) as Lamar, Martin and Arlington are all pretty close and it’s not decided there,” Griffiths said of the potential playoff matchups for the first round.

“As a second seed, we wouldn’t see Carroll until the regional finals,” Griffiths said, adding that his Lady Indians would love another shot at Carroll to reverse the two 1-0 losses to the Lady Dragons.

“I know Timber Creek is looking at it the same way,” Griffiths said.

For senior Amanda Stickney, the Timber Creek game was one which the two schools knew would determine much of the district standings.

“We played really well against them the first time,” Stickney said of the Indians’ 2-0 win over Timber Creek in the first match up. “We had our opportunities to put it away.”

“This has been my favorite team since my sophomore year,” Stickney said. “We are very talented and we hope to finish strong.”

Senior left defender Amanda Olson said it has been a little difficult not to focus on the fact the Lady Indians are headed to the playoffs, but they still are committed to taking the second-place spot.

“It will make it easier in the playoffs. But we don’t take Timber Creek for granted. They are as good as we expected them to be. We do look at them like a rivalry game,” Olson said.

Last week’s spring break may have been good timing, but all teams will be benefitting from the rest late in the season.

“We welcomed the rest,” Stickney said. “We’ll come back with a vigor for the game with some good mental rest.”

Timber Creek finishes Friday against Fossil Ridge.

Central was taking on Haltom on Tuesday and concludes with Northwest.

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