Marble Falls boys soccer beats Fredericksburg
CAPTION: The Mustangs and Billies played a very tough and tight match where both goals were a premium. In this play, the Billies are trying to convert a corner kick into a goal but fail thanks to the efforts of goalie Jett Marcum (wearing orange) and William Guzman (4), who later scored the only goal to ensure a Marble Falls win. Photo by Shaunna Marcum/ShaunnaLisa of Cliffhanger Loop Productions
The Marble Falls High School boys soccer team defeated Fredericksburg 1-0 March 6 to remain in first place in the District 26-4A standings.
The Billies (7-6-2, 7-3-1) were looking to get a split in the season series against the Mustangs.
The Mustangs (12-3-5, 8-1-1) got the only goal of the match when Will Guzman found the back of the net on a 45-yard free kick with 15 minutes left in the match.
“We had a couple of guys go up for the ball and actually went off the back of (a Fredericksburg player’s) head into the goal,” Marble Falls head coach Ryan Craven said. “So I gave the credit to Will for the goal, but it was more of an own goal thing.”
From there it was all about the defense as coaches selected several defenders for Players of the Game: David Dominguez, Raul Luna, goalie Jett Marcum, Carlos Galindo Roque, Drake Taylor and Guzman.
“(The Billies) were an extremely physical team,” Craven said. “They probably possessed the ball the majority of the time and were putting pressure on us. So we were fighting like crazy defensively. We man-marked their best player (Christian Olvera).”
Noe Gonzalez and Carlos Galindo Roque drew the assignment.
“He had some shots on the goal, but he didn’t have any real clear shots,” the coach said. “So we were able to take him out of the game, but they did a really good job of possessing the ball and not letting us possess it at all. They did well defensively by putting the pressure on us, kind of like what we usually do. They kind of flipped the script on us.”
He commended goalie Jett Marcum for his performance in keeping Fredericksburg off the scoreboard.
“Jett had some amazing saves,” the coach said. “Our defense was flying. Jett had to crawl around for the ball twice on corner kicks cause it was just kind of bouncing around yards away from the goal.”
Craven noted many factors worked against the Mustangs – injuries, illness and other extra-curricular events players are involved in meant some played through some physical challenges.
“We adjusted our game and did what we had to do to at least get a positive result, but we were extremely banged up,” he said. “It was just a gritty performance by our kids, because of so much stuff that they were having to overcome. So it wasn’t our best game of the year, but it was probably just our grittiest performance of the year.”
Two matches remain in the regular season, which ends this week. First is the Mustangs’ final regular season contest at home against Fischer Canyon Lake Tuesday, March 10, followed by a road trip to Bandera Friday, March 13. The junior varsity plays at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 7 p.m.
Before the start of the Canyon Lake varsity match, the Mustangs will honor their seniors at 6:40 p.m.
Marble Falls will enter the Class 4A Division I playoffs against Austin LBJ, the District 25-4A runner-up, with date, site and time still to be determined. The University Interscholastic League has scheduled the first round to be completed between Thursday-Saturday, March 19-21.
