Southlake Carroll senior helps with offensive prowess

Calvin Herd has emerged as one of the area’s best offensive boys soccer players over the last few seasons.

The Southlake Carroll striker had 16 points and eight assists through the first 14 games of the season, and coach Greg Oglesby said last year’s District Offensive MVP has certainly made is presence felt.

“Calvin is having a fantastic season, building on a strong junior year,” Oglesby said. “He is our leading scorer and one of the most dangerous forwards in the area.”

Herd said he has been pleased with the way the Dragons have played to this point in the season, even when they have come up a bit short.

“The season has been going very well,” Herd said. “Even including the loss against Flower Mound, there hasn’t been a game where we didn’t outclass the team we played.”

Carroll lost 2-1 to the Jaguars to open up district play and was 4-2-2 in district after Tuesday’s game, also against Flower Mound and this time a 1-1 draw in which Herd scored the Dragons’ goal.

Herd takes four AP classes and is a member of the National Honor Society.

Herd said he feels his role is to “support the team in our attack, trying to score or create goals,” and said to make the playoffs and have a good run, the Dragons will need to do a couple of things.

“Maintaining our current form should be sufficient to make the playoffs,” Herd said last week. “But in order to make a deep run, we need to make sure to keep scoring.” He said the team gets into trouble most when it doesn’t take advantage of chances in front of the goal.

Oglesby said that Herd is a player who “has an uncanny ability to put the ball in the net,” and added there is a definite objective for his senior forward this season.

“The goals for him this season is to help us qualify for the playoffs and then make a long playoff run,” Oglesby said. “His experience and maturity make us a tough team to beat.”

This story was originally published February 22, 2017 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Southlake Carroll senior helps with offensive prowess."