With five minutes left in the match, Coppell senior goalkeeper Arath Valdez worked to minimize the threat of Plano while the Coppell boys soccer team looked for an opening on Plano’s goal. 

The Cowboys hosted Plano last night in its District 6-6A opening match at Buddy Echols Field, which ended, 0-0.

“It was better than how we usually play,” Coppell senior forward Pedro Perez said. “I just came off an injury so for me it was a little hard but I did my best. As a team, we connected and brought more energy than we usually do. We just need to keep that up and keep working.”

Plano controlled possession in the first half, with the majority of attempted goals on the Cowboys’ side of the pitch. Plano continued in this fashion, making more dangerous attempts on Valdez.

“The last five minutes everyone’s trying to score, take the [win]. We’re all playing with more intensity and waking up to try and do something,” Valdez said.

In this match the Cowboys were down a starter in senior midfielder Walker Stone.

“We struggled with [communication] and touches that got away from us [leading to] turnovers,” Coppell coach James Balcom said. “We were missing our central figure in the middle of Stone, without him to control play and hold things up, it hurt us a little bit tonight.”

Communication errors are nearly impossible to avoid throughout all 80 minutes of play.

“Every game there’s going to be miscommunication errors and that’s what we were trying to work on really. We need to be able to communicate and connect so that we don’t make stupid mistakes,” Perez said.

Last season, the Cowboys faced Plano in its district opener. 

“It’s a tough Plano team,” Balcom said. “They have one loss on the year, but we never go into a game looking for a tie. In a game like that, that’s tough from the start, you take it and you run with it. Last year we played and lost that first game, now we’re one point ahead of last year.”

On Friday, the Cowboys travel to Plano West, with kickoff at 7:30 p.m.

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