Mustangs knocked off balance by South Hills

The season came to an end for the Grapevine boys soccer team on Thursday night, as the Mustangs lost in their area round game by a score of 1-0 to Fort Worth South Hills.

Grapevine wrapped up the season with an overall record of 15-5-2, and coach Heath Bullard said that the loss in the area round was not his teams' best effort of the season.

“I don't think we played our smartest game,” Bullard said.

The Mustangs won a district championship and defeated Azle in the bi-district round last week, but came up short in its bid to reach the regional quarterfinals last week.

Bullard said that reflecting on the entire season, his feelings are somewhat mixed when he looks at how his team performed overall and what the Mustangs were able to accomplish.

“As a whole, I am happy that we won district and bi-district titles,” Bullard said. “But I feel like we should still be playing.”

Grapevine had 16 seniors on this year's squad, and Bullard said that their contributions and leadership will definitely be missed next school year.

“The seniors mean a great deal, as all of my players do,” Bullard said. “They put us back on a winning tradition.”

The Mustangs finished the season with 11 shutouts in district en route to the 6-5A title after realignment placed the school in the same district as Birdville, Lake Dallas and four Fort Worth schools.

Bullard said that if his players take away anything from this season, there are a few points he would very much like for them to remember.

“I hope they had fun, that everyone on the team contributed to the success, and they understand that all of the decisions made by the coaches were to make our team successful,” Bullard said.

Grapevine made the postseason last year, as well, losing to Coppell in the bi-district round, but missed the playoffs entirely the prior two years.

The Mustangs will return Chad Sahinkaya, a TopDrawerSoccer.com National High School Player of the Week this season, as well as the No. 126 player in the IMG Top 150 class of 2016.

Sahinkaya earned the award for scoring seven goals in one week, including a hat trick in one game.

Bullard said that he is feeling pretty good about how things will be shaping up for his team for next season, both in terms of returning talent as well as the junior varsity players moving up.

“We have a good nucleus coming back and some young players are going to have to contribute for our program to continue to be successful,” Bullard said.

This story was originally published April 6, 2015 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Mustangs knocked off balance by South Hills."