SPRING BRANCH – There will be a new Region IV-5A champion in girls soccer after Smithson Valley knocked off last year’s regional champ Friday night.
The Lady Rangers were at home and eliminated the 2022 regional champs Boerne Champion, 8-2. The Lady Chargers end their season at 11-12-1 overall.
After the match, Champion coach Kara Walters addressed her team amidst some tears and laughter.
“I just told them how proud we were, I told them to keep their heads up when they walked out of this stadium because they accomplished so much,” she said.
No. 1 state ranked Smithson Valley remained unbeaten this year at 25-0 and jumped out to a 4-0 lead by halftime. Walters gave credit to the Rangers for their fast start.
“They played at an even higher intensity than when we played them the first two times (in district) and they played with a lot more sense of urgency,” she said. “They have some phenomenal players and we tried to make some adjustments to account for that, but it was too much to handle.”
SV added another goal coming out of the break to make it 5-0, but Walters made some adjustments at halftime, and they paid off after the Chargers tallied 2 goals in a two-minute span midway through the second half to make it 5-2.
Addison Huber and Emma Mae Dixon accounted for the goals, both assisted by Nevaeh Garris, and there was some hope, but it didn’t take the Rangers long to take that hope away after they answered with two goals over the next four minutes to bump the lead back to 7-2. Smithson Valley closed it out on a final goal with 4:52 remaining.
“We were playing with two up top and put that third one up top to try and stretch the field. We were trying to get more numbers up and it did create more opportunities and we were able to convert, but we just struggled on defense and weren’t able to contain their counter attack,” Walters said. “I’m proud of how the girls played to the whistle and the character they showed, not only their composure on the field being down that much, but continuing to attack. That said a lot about who they are as people.”
Champion has seven seniors listed on its roster and they are Mya Serda, Emma Mae Dixon, Skyleigh Arnold, Regan Alt, Addison Huber, Hannah Arnall and Nevaeh Garris.
“We’re definitely going to miss their leadership because it’s leadership that was very positive,” the coach said.
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