Panthers stymied by Duncanville once again

The season came to an end for the Colleyville Heritage boys soccer team last week, and coach Adam Phillips said that while he is disappointed his team did not advance further into the postseason, he is pretty pleased with the season as a whole.

The Panthers lost to Duncanville by a score of 1-0 in the bi-district round in a game in which Phillips said his team really had a hard time getting anything going offensively.

“Whenever you lose, you don't think you performed at your best, obviously,” Phillips said. “I think we could have performed better. I think our passing was a little off, but we played pretty well. The thing about it is that in a game where everything is close, one mistake or one good play can mean the game. Unfortunately, for us that was the way that it went.”

Colleyville Heritage finished the season in second place in the district standings with a total of just four losses on the season, and Phillips said he is pretty proud of those things.

“I think that we expected to do more, but we did win a tournament with a lot of big teams in it, which was big for us,” Phillips said. “At one point, we were ranked second in the state, which is good for the program moving forward, but I think everyone in our program thought we'd do a little bit better in the playoffs, obviously.”

Phillips said that his team owes a debt of gratitude to this year's seniors, who performed exactly as they were supposed to this season.

“I think that they brought our team to new heights this year with their play,” Phillips said. “I know that we had a lot of our younger players comment on the physical play of a lot of our seniors along with their skill level and wanting to get to that level.

“I think that they have left a legacy that hopefully will be matched next season and in years to come.”

In spite of losing more than 20 seniors from this year's program, Phillips said things are shaping up well for next season, as well.

“We have a really big program this year, but next year, we've got a really big class next year, too,” Phillips said. “I think there are 16 or 17 next year, so it will be a big class, and then skill-wise, they're definitely going to be there. We'll have good experience, and I think the JV team did pretty well this year, also, so it's just matter of players moving up and stepping into those roles.”

Colleyville will return five starters next season.

Phillips said that more than anything else, he hopes his players created friendships this season that will last far beyond what the team was able to accomplish on the soccer field this season.

“I would like for them to take away friendships that last beyond the school year and beyond soccer,” Phillips said. “Hopefully, they have developed some relationships they can look back on later in life and have some good memories of this year.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2015 at 3:13 PM with the headline "Panthers stymied by Duncanville once again."