Cowboys dominate rival Marcus in playoff shutout victory
After Coppell High School sophomore Wyatt Priest scored Coppell’s first goal of Friday night’s game, the team runs to celebrate the goal during the first half of Friday night’s game against Marcus at Max Goldfield Stadium. Coppell defeated Marcus with a final score of 2-0, resulting in their progression in the playoffs.
April 2, 2016
LEWISVILLE- For the second straight week, sophomore forward Wyatt Priest, with the game tied, received a ball inside the box. And for the second straight week, Priest delivered, this time rocketing a momentum-shifting goal past the Flower Mound Marcus keeper to give the Cowboys soccer team (19-0-2) the first goal in a 2-0 Class 6A Region I area victory over the rival Marauders (16-3-3).
Priest’s goal came at a key moment for the Cowboys. After narrowly escaping strong attack from the Marauders that left the Coppell keeper out of position, they Cowboys came back on the counterattack. Priest put himself in perfect position to take the pass, then launched it from just inside the box into the top of the net.
“It’s just awesome,” said Priest, on recording back to back playoff games with a goal. “But it’s really not about me scoring the goal. It’s about how well the team did, and our team played so well tonight. We moved the ball around well, we just played as a team really well.”
After his goal in the 38th minute, the Cowboys took the 1-0 lead and the momentum into halftime. Just after the start of the half, junior midfielder Alex Haas took a beautifully run play and turned it into a 2-0 lead for the Cowboys.
“It’s been our tendency this year,” said Coppell coach Chad Rakestraw on the team’s ability to improve their play after their first goal. “We get the first one, and then we settle. We just have to create.
During the beginning of the second half of Friday night’s game, Coppell High School midfielder and junior Alexander Haas attempts to steal the ball from a Marcus forward. The Coppell Cowboys ended the night with a 2-0 victory over the Marcus Marauders at Max Goldfield Stadium.
“The biggest thing that settled us down and got us going was that first goal. Once we scored that first goal, it really just calmed everyone’s early nerves. We calmed down, and just played our game, which is just to connect things. We weren’t doing that until that point, and that was late into the first half, so it was good to get that first before the half ended.”
After Haas’s score, the Cowboys cruised through the rest of the game, playing stout defense all the while continuing to protect the ball the way they have done so well all year. Senior keeper Jerod Longoria, aside from the one play in the first half, played a solid game, knocking away several crosses into the box from the Marcus attack.
Going up against a team who is as highly ranked in the area so early on in the playoffs, the Cowboys proved that their state no. 1 rank is not just hype.
“It’s huge [for our confidence],” Rakestraw said. “Marcus was one point away from winning the district over Plano West. For us to be able to get a shutout on them, and score two on them they’ve had 11 goals scored on them all season. So for us to be able to get almost 20 percent of that in one night, is big time.”
Up next for the Cowboys in the regional quarterfinal of playoffs is McKinney Boyd on Tuesday at Frisco Memorial Stadium at 7:00. The Broncos defeated Duncanville in a shootout on Friday.
“The biggest thing we need to carry into the next game is our intensity,” Priest said. “If we have our intensity, we can do anything.”
