The Manchester Academy girls’ soccer team lost their final game of the season 3-2 to Bayou Academy.
But they didn’t lose it very easily.
The Lady Colts, on paper, were a much better team. They were more experience, and their record was impressive.
According to Manchester Academy softball coach Wade Yeates, the odds were against them heading into it.
“On paper, they were supposed to dominate us,” Yeates said. “They were either 9-1 or 10-1 coming into that game. They had a lot of seniors. They had more high school players than we had players. It didn’t turn out that way.”
The Lady Mavericks, knowing it would be their last match of the season, wanted to go out with a win, and for a while, it looked like that might be the case.
They took a 2-1 lead into the half.
Bayou struck back in the second half and tied things up on a penalty kick.
In the final few minutes, Bayou scored a goal to take a lead they would not lose.
To Yeates, the game was symbolic of how far they have come this year.
“The quickest summary of the game is that we played well,” Yeates said. “We dominated them physically. We won more balls than them. For as young as we are, we really won on the field. We just didn’t win on the scoreboard.”
Despite winning only two matches this year, Yeates saw improvement throughout the year.
“We were successful in making improvements this year,” Yeates said. “You always want to do better, but we knew we had a young team this year.”
Moving forward, the Lady Mavericks will return their core of players, losing only two to graduation.
Yeates believes a year of experience and continuity will help the team dramatically.
“We have a lot of underclassmen returning,” Yeates said. “We won’t have to change game plans heading into next year. We can keep what we’re doing in motion. Our offensive and defensive strategies can remain the same.”
