Grapevine boys soccer ends season at regional semis

The season came to an end for the Grapevine boys soccer team on Friday night after winning a district championship and reaching the regional semifinals.

The Mustangs lost to El Paso Eastlake by a score of 4-1.

It was also the end of an era for the team, as head coach Heath Bullard is stepping down as head coach after 30 years in which he led one of the first area soccer programs to achieve major postseason success. Read more online at www.southlakejournal.com.

Bullard said that his team actually played pretty well early on against Eastlake.

“I think we played extremely hard,” Bullard said. “We just didn’t capitalize on our scoring opportunities. Losing that first goal really hurt.”

Bullard said that reflecting on the season as a whole and what the Mustangs were able to accomplish, he is pretty pleased with how things unfolded.

“As a whole, I thought we had a very good season,” Bullard said. “Our record may not look that impressive, but if you look at our non-district, you see the quality of teams we played, and most were 6A and playoff teams.”

Grapevine defeated Azle in the bi-disrict round of the playoffs by a score of 2-0, then defeated Fort Worth South Hills 4-2 in the area round after trailing 1-0 at halftime.

The Mustangs then defeated Wichita Falls by a score of 1-0 in the regional quarterfinals to reach the fourth round, where the team came up short against Eastlake.

Bullard said that things look promising for next season, although the team is going to lack the experience of this year’s team.

“Next season the team will be young,” Bullard said. “There is some returning talent and some young players are going to have to contribute.”

Bullard said that he hopes his players take away a couple of things from this season.

“I hope that they understand how important it is to work as a team and not give up,” Bullard said. “I hope they understand that I made decisions on what I thought was best for the team and them as young men.”

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Grapevine boys soccer ends season at regional semis."