NAVASOTA — The La Grange High School girl’s soccer team took care of Montgomery High School Jan. 4 at Rattlesnake Field by a final score of 3-0. A scoreless first half led to halftime adjustments followed by an onslaught for La Grange as they poured on the scoring with all of their goals being netted in the second half. “We had a great talk at halftime,” said La Grange head girl's soccer coach Lauren Hubbert.
“Just about coming out strong, coming out aggressive. I think it took them that first half to realize that we are in this game and we are capable of winning this game. I think that really flipped the switch for the girls. Once they have that re- alization, they gain that confidence.
Last year, I feel like we weren’t quite ready for this tournament when we got here. I feel like the group this year, we are strong, we are ready, we have been working really, really hard and we are far past the point that we were last year. It’s all the girls. They work so hard, they know their jobs, they know what they’re responsible for. We’ve been taking every prac- tice to work on specific components of the game. Practicing strategies like our through balls and things like that. They are taking it and they are running with it. I could not be more proud.”
La Grange’s Kaylee Soto cashed in on two big goals in the second half in order to propel her team to victory. “I try not to lose my focus,” Soto said. “It’s more of trying to find those open spots and just take it when I can.”
A scoreless first half consisted of a lot of offense from the Lady Leopards. Senior Natalie Orona made a corner kick at the 15:40 mark, Florencia Barron barely missed on a shot near the 10 yard line a minute later, and La Grange threatened to score again with six and a half minutes to go, but it led to a scoreless first half from both sides.
The Lady Leopards turned on the switch with Soto's first goal at the 30:40 mark on a fast break, then she scored her second goal about five minutes later to give her squad a 2-0 lead. Montgomery didn’t really threaten to score much at all throughout this match and La Grange sealed the deal with 22:46 to play in the game when Orona made an assist to Barron right in front of Montgomery’s goal for a 3-0 advantage. La Grange continued to attack throughout the rest of the second half with a few more shots on goal and settled for a comfortable 3-0 victory.
