Sunday, March 23, 1997

Cougs advance to regional quarterfinal

LUBBOCK - Cricket Holt's header eight minutes into the second half gave Cooper a 3-1 lead and the Lady Cougars held off Amarillo Tascosa for a 3-2 girls sectional soccer playoff victory Saturday at the Monterey High School field.

Head coach Claudia Blea's team will next meet El Paso Irvin at 4 p.m. Tuesday in a regional quarterfinal at Pease Field in Odessa.

Cooper never trailed in the game after Stacy Metcalf assisted Emily Batko 27 minutes into the first half. In the 36th minute, Batko assisted Rachel Welch off of a corner kick to give Cooper a 2-0 lead at halftime.

Two minutes into the second half Tascosa scored, but eight minutes later Holt's goal gave the Lady Cougars their 3-1 cushion.

With 25 minutes left, Tascosa scored again before Cooper's defense stiffened.

"We shut down their key player in the first half, but she came out on fire in the second half," Blea said. "She's a very good one-on-one player. I was pretty pleased with the way we played because we stopped them for the majority of the 80 minutes.

"After Cricket's goal, we probably had four more opportunities to score. I thought we played well offensively the whole game, and did a good job defensively in the first half.

"Cricket dominated the middle, Stacy Metcalf had a good game feeding the ball, Carolyn Poynor played well, and Stacy McNeil did a good job at sweeper. A lot of credit has to go to Rachel Welch, too, for shutting down their key player."

The win improved Cooper, the District 7-5A runner-up, to 18-3 on the season. The Lady Rebels, who finished third in District 6-5A, closed out their campaign with a 12-7 mark.