Resilient Grapevine rallies to reach Class 5A girls soccer state championship game
Grapevine spotted Spring Branch Smithson Valley a goal in the first minute, but rallied behind Baylor signee Theresa McCullough to escape with a 2-1 win in overtime in a Class 5A girls soccer state semifinal on Thursday at Birkelbach Field.
Grapevine (25-3-2) will be making its fourth attempt to bring home a state title when it faces Frisco (23-2-2) in the state championship game at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Frisco defeated Georgetown 1-0 in the second semifinal.
This is the Mustangs’ sixth trip to the state soccer tournament.
“I thought the game was over in the first 30 seconds, then I realized that we’ve been down before,” said McCullough. “We had to in round three against Midlo so, I just knew that a goal was coming when we pinged the post in the first 20 minutes.
“I just had to keep going at the outside back and put my head down and go one-v-one all day. It was definitely unsettling getting down 1-0 in the first 30 seconds.”
Smithson Valley goalkeeper Jacy White punted the ball past midfield following a Grapevine touch out of bounds. The ball was headed forward by Malia Thalman to Sabrina Taber, who gained control of the ball 30 yards out.
Taber, a Cincinnati signee, then outraced the Mustangs’ defense and beat the Grapevine keeper one-on-one to go up 1-0 just 29 seconds into the game.
“Obviously you don’t want to go down 30 seconds into the game, but we know the resiliency of the girls,” said Grapevine coach Steve McBride. “They’ve been showing it all year long through everything that’s been thrown at us. We’ve had to come back in games all year, but to be able to do it here, where historically we’ve been on the other end of that being up and have someone come back on us, I think that it’s good for us psychologically moving forward getting into the final.”
Smithson Valley (27-1-0) outshot Grapevine 6-4 in the first half, but the Mustangs turned the tables after the break with a 10-2 advantage.
McCullough scored the equalizer in the 67th minute when she raced down the right side then crossed a shot from eight yards out just inside the left post.
“I think McBride made it pretty clear to us at the half that we just needed to change our mentality, our mindset,” said McCullough. “He told us that he felt like none of us wanted to play and that they wanted it more than us. It was more of a mindset that we had to change and we did that and came out on top.”
Grapevine took its first lead, 2-1, when Emma Johnson hit McCullough on the right side with a beautiful cross 35 yards out. McCullough sidestepped a Rangers’ defender 10 yards from the goal line then blasted a shot off the Smithson Valley keeper from eight yards away in the 85th minute of the first overtime period.
“It’s pretty cool getting the two goals, but at the end of the day all I care about is winning,” said McCullough, whose team lost to Frisco Wakeland 3-2 in OT in last year’s title game. “I don’t care who scores or when we score as long as we come out on top. I just want to bring it all home this year.
”Sixth time to the state tournament and hopefully this will be the year...we’re praying, we’ll see. It would be amazing for me to get it done my senior year, but I want it mainly for McBride and our parents. They’ve been there through it all for us and I want to do it for them more than anything.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 2:36 PM.