LET’S GO! | Soccer postseason begins for Kilgore, Henderson teams
Texas high school soccer playoffs begin this week, with the ultimate goal for each team to make the trip to Georgetown, in the Austin area, in April to play for a state championship.
Four programs in the ETBlitz.com coverage area are in the University Interscholastic League’s soccer playoffs: Kilgore High School’s boys and girls are both in the UIL Class 4A, Division 1 playoffs – that’s the playoff bracket with schools with larger enrollments – and Henderson High School’s girls and boys are in the UIL 4A Division 2 playoffs.
In short, each one of them could make different state championship games; Kilgore and Henderson teams cannot play in the playoffs.
Georgetown’s Birkelbach Stadium will be the site once again for the state tournament, this time hosting only the championship games. Let’s hope all four teams from KHS and HHS make the title games; they would all be the same day, on April 10.
The 4A-Division 2 girls state championship is that morning at Birkelbach, at 11 a.m. The 4A-D2 boys title game follows, at 1. The 4A-D1 girls state championship is at 4 p.m. that day, and the 4A-D1 boys title game is that night, at 6:30.
Class 5A title games are that Friday, April 11, and 6A plays that Saturday, April 12.
We’re all a long way from that, though, as the first round games are being played this week.
Henderson
Coach Oscar Guevara’s Henderson’s Lady Lions are back in the postseason, and they open with Madisonville on Friday at Lufkin Hudson High, a 6:30 p.m. start.
Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students.
The stadium is located at 6735 Ted Trout Drive, Lufkin, TX 75904.
Henderson’s girls are 6-10-1 as the playoffs start, and Madisonville is 21-2, and lost its final regular season game. Prior to that loss, the Lady Mustangs had won 14 straight games.
The Henderson-Madisonville winner will meet either Bullard (17-1, with 17 straight wins) or North Lamar (8-10) in round two.
As for Henderson’s boys, they’re opening the playoffs much, much closer.
Henderson (11-6) will face Crockett (11-9-2) in round one, or bi-district, at Pine Tree High School’s Pirate Stadium in Longview at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. The stadium is located at 3737 W. Loop 281, Longview, TX 75604.
Tickets are $5 each for adults, $3 each for students, and can be bought ahead of time here: Pine Tree (Longview, TX).
Henderson-Crockett is actually the second of two games at Pirate Stadium on Thursday night; there is a first-round girls game between Athens and Pleasant Grove that begins at 5:30 p.m.
Coach Jorge Cardenas and the Lions went 10-4 in district, and was the only team in District 16-4A with a win over Kilgore in regulation.
Henderson has won four straight games as the postseason starts.
Crockett won two of its last three regular season games – the loss was a 4-1 decision to Lufkin Hudson on March 11.
The Henderson-Crockett winner will face either Pittsburg (16-4), a winner of its district with a 13-1 district record, or Mineola (15-6), who won 11 of its 16 district games.
Kilgore
Kilgore’s Bulldogs, coached by Hector Peralez, and the Lady Bulldogs, coached by Daniel Garcia, are both playing Lufkin Hudson, and both are playing Thursday night at the Tomato Bowl in Jacksonville.
The Lady Bulldogs will meet Hudson at 5:30 p.m., and the boys game will follow around 7. Kilgore is the home team for both games.
Tickets are $6 for adults, $3 for students. Passes, including district passes and Texas High School Coaches Association passes, will be accepted.
Kilgore’s Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs both won their respective district championships – District 15-4A.
Kilgore’s Lady ‘Dogs have won 14 straight games and haven’t played a playoff warm-up, so they’ve been off since March 7. Coach Daniel Garcia’s team is 16-3-1, and went 14-0 in winning their district.
There’s this note: senior Phenix Rivers is eight goals away from becoming Kilgore’s girls all-time leading scorer.
Hudson’s Lady Hornets are 7-7-3 overall, and went 3-4-2 in their district. This is the second straight year that the two have opened the playoffs against each other: Kilgore won last year’s game, 8-1.
The Kilgore-Hudson girls winner will meet either Chapel Hill (14-9) or Sulphur Springs (17-3-1) in round two, or the area round. Chapel Hill finished third in its district; SSHS won its district with a 10-0 record, and has nine straight wins.
Kilgore’s boys played a warm-up game against Longview and came up short, 3-1, but the Bulldogs are still 18-3-1 this season, and went 12-1-1 in district play.
The ‘Dogs are attempting to make it back to the state tournament; they were there a year ago, in Peralez’s first season as head coach, losing to Boerne in the state semifinals.
Kilgore faces a Hudson team that is 12-6-1 this season.
The winner of the Bulldogs-Hornets matchup will also, ironically, meet either Sulphur Springs or Chapel Hill in the area round. Chapel Hill went 11-9 this season so far, and finished third in its district; Sulphur’s boys are 19-6-1 as the playoffs begin, and went 12-2 in district play with a second-place finish.
