By Barrett Roberson
Varsity girls soccer beat Palo Duro 5-0 at Frenship High on Friday to win their first playoff game in 16 years.
“This is a pretty big moment for these kids,” first year head coach Tiffany Van Hoose said. “It’s a pretty big moment for these parents, for the community, for everybody.”
This win is monumental for everyone on the team, including their only freshman.
“It’s really exciting,” Rheauna De La Garza said. “Being a freshman on varsity and making playoffs is a great achievement, and definitely something that I want to have in all four years.”
Though the final score tells a different story, the game did not start smoothly, with the score being 0-0 until the first goal was scored by junior Laila Brown with under 15 minutes left in the first half.
“We were a little nervous to start,” senior Justine Martinez said. “This is the first playoff game for any of us, and I think breaking the ice and having that first goal opened the can of worms and let us become more successful.”
This change in confidence was illustrated immediately on the field, as Martinez scored the team’s second goal just seconds after Brown’s.
“I had gotten the pass from Zoe,” Martinez said. “The keeper was pulled out a little bit, so my thought was to see if I could chip it right over her and get a goal.”
The team is hoping to carry over the confidence from the latter half of Friday’s game into their next game on Monday.
“We expect to see changes in mentality for the next game,” Van Hoose said. “For the first 25 minutes it was straight nerves. Once we got that first goal in, everyone relaxed and it seemed like a much smoother game. So hopefully going into this next game they already know what to expect and we can get the ball rolling a lot quicker.”
While the team’s confidence to start the game was an issue, they also had to overcome 33 mph wind.
“The wind was awful,” De La Garza said. “We had to play the ball on the ground. We had to just figure it out and get through it.”
Though the win was historic, the team is looking ahead to their next game against El Paso High School on Monday in Midland.
“I’m just really excited for the girls to continue their season and not have to go home,” Van Hoose said. “They get to have happy tears instead of sad tears.”
