SEALY — The Sealy High School girl’s soccer team went down to the wire with Katy Freeman High School Feb. 10 at TJ Mills Stadium in Sealy and won in penalty kicks by a final score of 5-4. This was a game that could’ve went either way, even in regulation, as both teams were evenly matched throughout the contest.
“We’ve been in penalty kicks before in previous seasons with good teams,” said Sealy head girl’s soccer coach Danielle Eschenburg.
“So we knew what we needed to do. We had been practicing them all week if it got to that because we knew this was gonna be a good team and we might not get the points on the board that we needed. The girls have been really practicing for that because we kind of predicted this is where we would be.”
Sealy’s Emily Magma scored the game-winning goal in penalty kicks to give her team the walk-off victory.
“I just wanted to focus on one thing and that was winning,” Magma said. “I just took out all the thoughts in my head. I just shot it and it went in.”
After a couple shot at- tempts early in the first half, the Lady Tigers scored their first goal at about the 29 min ute mark on a cross pass that came from Maddie Withrow and then was deflected into their own net by Katy Freeman to give Sealy a 1-0 lead.
Sealy created a little more pressure on offense than Freeman did for the rest of the half and even recorded a few more shots on goal with one coming from Alexa Lopez at about the eight minute mark, which led to the Lady Tigers maintaining their 1-0 advantage at halftime.
The two teams put quality shots on goal to start the second half, then Freeman nearly scored a goal on a cross pass at the 16 minute mark. This was followed by Sealy getting a near goal of their own about five minutes later from a cor ner kick. Freeman went on to tie the game at one on a corner kick at the 4:54 mark to send the game to penalty kicks.
After the first Sealy penal ty kick was blocked, Freeman made their first attempt and Sealy responded with a goal from Aundrea Castaneda.
The Lady Golden Eagles missed their second penalty kick, which was followed by Julissa Olvera making theirs for Sealy.
The two teams then traded makes with Sealy’s goal coming from Withrow, which led to Freeman’s attempt hitting the cross bar and Magma’s goal clinching it for the Lady Tigers at 5-4.
