Article About Lumberton Girls From the Enterprise

[bullets13]

The playoff bracket said the Lumberton girls soccer team was playing Waco Midway, but in a way Tuesday night, it faced history too.

The Raiders had hoped to become the first Southeast Texas high school girls soccer team to win a fourth straight University Interscholastic League game.

Instead, Lumberton fell to a faster and more versatile team from Waco Midway in a 5-0 loss at Conroe ISD's Woodforest National Bank Stadium.

"It's tough," Lumberton head coach Jason Hopson said.

In the end, the Lumberton (18-3-4) girls walked off the field to end a season in which they won the District 37-4A title and won three playoff games.

No Southeast Texas girls soccer team had won three straight UIL playoff games since Nederland in 2000.

Lumberton's bid for a fourth straight playoff win fell short against a team that got in a groove by substituting several midfielders and forward through the second half.

Hopson, whose team went into halftime with a 1-0 deficit, struggled to adjust.

"I really think there's no way to describe how to defend against that," Hopson about defending Midway's multiple substitutions. "We are going to go back and look at film from this game, because when you play teams like this, that's how you learn."

Lumberton goalie Kaitlyn Peavey stopped four shots in the first half but faced more than she and the rest of the Lumberton defense could handle in the second.

Midway (21-3) took a 3-0 lead when senior midfielder Taylor Fletcher scored two goals 15 seconds apart about 5 minutes into the second half.

"I think that we started the game playing good defense and we went into the half in really good spirits," Lumberton senior defender Randi Paine said. "But in that second half, once they scored those two goals, we got down on ourselves."

Midway added two more goals and will play a regional semifinal against Brenham, which beat Port Neches-Groves earlier in the playoffs. Midway has outscored is three playoff opponents 16-0.

Although his team won easily, Midway coach Bill Sharpe left the field impressed by Lumberton's speed.

"They have good team speed," Sharp said. "I knew they had good team speed, but it's another thing to see it up close. It's just with what we do, we wear teams down and that's why we were hoping it'd be 85 degrees at game time."

Carroll said it was the fourth time his team played on Field Turf, an artificial surface that leads to faster play than on grass. Hopson said this was Lumberton's first game on the surface.

Hopson said the fast playing surface did not hinder Lumberton's offense. He added that it was a good learning experience for a team that will lose 11 players and return 10 next season.

"The girls, they enjoyed playing on turf," he said. "And we really don't get many opportunities to play on it so for the younger girls, I hope they take this and realize that if we continue to improve and make more deep playoff runs, we can play on fields like this again."

[soccerfan]

Where will the Brenham a Midway game be held?