Princeton senior Eric Bautista and the Panthers soccer team will conclude the regular season Friday against Jackie Hendricks Stadium against McKinney Boyd. Photo by Jerry Winfrey / C&S Media
By David Wolman
The Plano West boys soccer team has been a force through District 6-6A play. But Princeton wasn’t intimidated by the lore of the district’s first-place team.
Not only did the Panthers battle through the entire match, but they nearly rallied from two goals down. However, Princeton wasn’t able to produce the tying goal in a 2-1 loss at Jackie Hendricks Stadium last Thursday.
“Really proud of how we competed throughout the match, battling through the ebbs and flows of the match, against the first-place team in the district,” head coach Kent Ackmann said. “I was pleased with our emotional maturity to battle through some hard moments that did not go in our favor.
“West’s players are very big, especially in attack, so defending set pieces was a huge focus for us. I was pleased that we secured that part of the plan and didn’t surrender anything off of a set piece. No team has scored more goals in district than West, so holding them to just two gave us a chance to get a result. We had quite a few opportunities late in the second half but just couldn’t convert to find the equalizer.”
The match was originally scheduled to take place Friday but was moved up one day because of weather concerns.
Plano West took a 1-0 lead with 25 minutes left and later increased its advantage to 2-0 with 16 minutes remaining.
Princeton (6-11-2 overall, 4-9 District 6-6A) got on the board later in the half after a cross by junior Derek Mireles was finished with an accurate kick by senior Aldo Longoria for a goal.
Despite generating several scoring chances over the remainder of the match, the Panthers were unable to produce the tying goal.
The Princeton Lady Panthers (1-17, 0-14) also showed a lot of fight against Plano West but came up short in a 4-0 loss. The Lady Wolves led 2-0 at halftime before scoring twice more during the second half to put the game out of reach.
Princeton will conclude its season Friday against McKinney Boyd. The boys game will be played at Jackie Hendricks Stadium, and the girls match will be at McKinney Boyd High School. Both matches are scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start.