SAN MARCOS – The Boerne Champion boys soccer team held off Leander for a long time during Friday’s first-round playoff match in San Marcos, but once the Lions scored with 16 minutes left, it snowballed from there.
Leander tallied three goals in the final 16 minutes to earn the 3-0 win and eliminate the Chargers from the playoffs. It’s only the second loss of the season for the Champion team that finishes its year at 14-2-3.
Chargers coach Clifton Tierney said he was proud of how his team competed against a good Leander squad that was the fourth seed from its district but came on strong towards the end of the season.
“Their last games of the year, they beat the No. 2 seed and tied the No. 1 seed. They could be a top seed,” he said. “They’re good and fast and our guys struggled, it feels like we’re all freshman for the most part and it felt like we were behind what they had. We were getting exposed because we were losing a lot of 1v1 battles. Defensively we were doing okay but once that fatigue hit and their No. 7 (Sebastian Rivas) started to go, they started to go.”
Champion kept the Lions off the board for the first 64 minutes of the match but they put one in with 16 minutes left for the 1-0 lead.
With not much time left, Tierney said they had to make a push.
“After they got that first one, you can’t sit back as much. You could but the kids aren’t going to accept that,” he said. “If we’re going to start pushing then we have to restructure everything to where we could push and be balanced in the back, but by doing that you risk opening up those flood gates. We could have sat there and grinded out a 1-0 loss but at that point, it’s can we tie it up?”
Leander scored again with 8 minutes left and then knocked in a final goal with 1:17 on the clock to make it 3-0.
Tierney said his team was young this season but performed well, winning the district title after not making the playoffs last season.
“With so many young kids, I was concerned with getting out (of district). They did well, even tonight they did well. I’m very happy for what they’ve done, they’ve overachieved and played bigger than their ability,” he said. “We have a lot of guys coming back, we’re going to miss our seniors but it’ll be fun to know that a large portion of that team will be right back on the field next year.”
Seniors listed on the roster are JP Martinez, Crew Pulliam, Alfredo Castellanos, Samuel Krupa, Matthew Magaw and Ryan Howe.
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