San Antonio Express News By Terrence Thomas
April 10, 2015
BROWNSVILLE — Reagan 2, McAllen Memorial 0: From crisp passing to producing goal-scoring opportunities, the Rattlers set the tone from the start. But after 16 minutes, and where it mattered most — on the scoreboard — the desired results weren’t found.
“You can tell if a team is building up momentum, building up strength, that something is going to happen soon,” said Reagan junior Deyvn Hagan. “It depends on who and when.”
Hagan provided that response, putting in the game-winner on a pass from Gaby Olson in the 17th minute. Sam Batley added an insurance goal in the 37th minute on a line-drive shot inside the left post.
tthomas@express-news.net
Brownsville Herald
Posted: Friday, April 10, 2015 11:15 pm
Staff Writer
Roy Hess
Posted on Apr 10, 2015by Roy Hess
The McAllen Memorial Lady Mustangs’ soccer season ended at the regional semifinal level of the state playoffs for the second straight year.
District 26-6A champion San Antonio Reagan (23-2-2) scored a pair of first-half goals and turned away every Memorial scoring threat to capture a 2-0 victory against the District 30-6A champion Lady Mustangs (24-3) on Friday in the Region IV-6A Tournament semifinals at Brownsville Sports Park .
Reagan, the defending Region IV-5A champion, next plays Los Fresnos, a 1-0 (5-3) penalty kicks winner earlier Friday over Corpus Christi Carroll, at 1 p.m. Saturday at BSP with the victor advancing to next week’s UIL state tournament in Georgetown .
“Reagan got some goals, not really high-quality goals, but that doesn’t matter one way or the other,” Memorial coach Matthew Kaiser said. “For our girls, it’s just tough to play from behind against a team like Reagan. We haven’t found ourselves in that position too many times this season.
“I think we played better in the second half,” he added. “We had the wind, and it helped a little bit. We had a few chances, maybe not great ones, but I’m still proud of our girls’ effort. They never gave up, and that’s all you can ask from them. (Despite this result) we had a fantastic season.”
Reagan went up 1-0 on Devyn Hagan’s slow-roller into the corner from close range 17 minutes into the match. Twenty minutes later, Sam Batley also scored from close range just three minutes before intermission to boost the lead to 2-0.
Reagan coach Frankie Whitlock has taken the Lady Rattlers to state four times and guided teams from San Antonio Churchill to state three times before that. She had praise for the Lady Mustangs.
“It was a good match,” Whitlock said. “Memorial was well-prepared, and there’s a lot of pride in them. It was a well-coached match, and you could tell they have some (NCAA) Division I players playing for them. They had some standouts, and we knew it was going to be a battle.
“We hope to have a good game plan against Los Fresnos (in the final),” she added. “It should be another battle.”