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Lake Creek celebrates its state soccer title over Grapevine.<\/p>\n
Jon Poorman\/Jon Poorman \/ Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
GEORGETOWN \u2014 Over the span of just three seasons under coach Alyssa Maynard, the Lake Creek girls soccer program has gone from a losing record and a first-round playoff exit to state champions.<\/p>\n
The Lions\u2019 transformation culminated in resounding fashion on Friday evening as they earned a dramatic 3-2 victory against perennial Dallas-area contender Grapevine in the UIL Class 5A Division II championship game. Junior Harper Montgomery scored on a header in the box with just 6:28 remaining to break a tie and propel her team to the thrilling win.<\/p>\n
Lake Creek (18-6-2) scored two goals in three minutes of game action spanning the first and second halves, seizing the momentum early. But the Lions had to fend off a scrappy Grapevine team, which tied the game in the late stages, to capture their first state title.\u00a0 They also secured the first girls soccer state title for Houston since Memorial won the Class 6A crown in 2018.<\/p>\n
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Lake Creek went 9-11-3 during Maynard\u2019s first season at the helm in 2022-23. The Lions steadily improved the following season and finally made a strong playoff run to the regional final in 2025. After starting this season with a 5-5-1 record against some tough non-district competition, Lake Creek found its stride and started to peak as the playoffs rolled around.<\/p>\n
The Lions finished their season by winning nine of their last 10 games, the lone loss during that stretch coming in a playoff warmup match against fellow state finalist Kingwood, which will compete for the 6A Division II title Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came in three years ago, we had a mindset that we wanted to be here,\u201d Maynard said. \u201cWe wanted to win a state championship. Last year, we lost to Barbers Hill (in the regional final), and instead of being sad and upset, it pissed them off. They were fired up, ready to go and just get back at it. I think that fire and the fight, we\u2019ve talked about it off and on all year. What story are you gonna write? Are you gonna write the one where you live with regrets? Or are you gonna write the one where you put it all on the field and just keep fighting for it? And I asked them today \u2014 what story are you writing? And they said, \u2018We’re gonna win. We’re gonna win it all.\u2019 And they sure did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grapevine (18-6-6) was aiming to win its second state title after claiming the unified 5A crown in 2023. But after not allowing a single goal over its first five playoff matches, Lake Creek ended the Mustangs\u2019 impressive string of shutouts.<\/p>\n
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Lake Creek looked in control against Grapevine early, creating several scoring chances. The Lions finally broke through with just 1:31 to play before halftime as Lainy Zabriegala found the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. Lake Creek wasted no time adding to that tally in the second half as Hallie Montgomery got into the action in the 41st minute to make it 2-0.<\/p>\n
Grapevine battled back, though. The Mustangs cut into the lead with a goal from Maddison Patton with 16:38 remaining and with just under 10 minutes to play, she tallied another to knot the game at 2-2. That set the stage for the late-game heroics from Harper Montgomery, who was named the Most Valuable Player after her goal put the Lions ahead for good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re just all really close, and we just love each other so much,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cI think that\u2019s a big part of it. It\u2019s like we\u2019re not just playing for ourselves, we\u2019re playing for each other. So whenever (Grapevine) came back and tied it, everyone was just giving everything they had. We knew we needed another (goal). We had to leave it all out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
That go-ahead goal sequence for Lake Creek started with a corner kick. Grapevine goalkeeper Brooke Bereuter got her hands on a deflection before the ball found its way through the air to Montgomery, who was ready and waiting, tracking the ball in front of the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the best feeling ever,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever been as happy. It was just so surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
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While the goal was certainly an exciting moment, the Lions still had work to do. Grapevine kept pressing and tried its best to create some opportunities on the other end, but Lake Creek stepped up defensively and closed out the win.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrapevine is an incredible team,\u201d Maynard said. \u201cAt the end of the day, our girls, they just don\u2019t stop. They have no quit. It doesn\u2019t matter if we\u2019re up by two or up by 10. They never stop. They just keep going. They keep fighting for it. So when the game got tied, it didn\u2019t even phase them. They just put the pedal back to the metal, and just kept going and battling it out all the way to the end. Literally to the last second, you\u2019re seeing kids go all over the field, covering the entire turf in white.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lake Creek celebrates its state soccer title over Grapevine. Jon Poorman\/Jon Poorman \/ Houston Chronicle GEORGETOWN \u2014 Over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-596090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}