Hambleton’s block lifts Spartans
Goal Keeper Kylie Hambleton’s shootout kick and block sent the Seven Lakes Spartans (15-7-3) to the next round of the playoffs with a 6-5 win over the Lamar Redskins Tuesday night at Delmar Stadium. With the win the Spartans advance to the class 5A region III semifinals to face Clearlake Friday at Abshire.
After two scoreless overtimes the teams had to result to kicks. Both teams scored five points in the kick session.
Redskins Sophomore Caitlyn Brady’s kick was blocked by goal keeper Hambleton to end the game.
“Lamar is the district champion and they played really well and I think some teams have under estimated them but their district champions and that means they’re a good team. I watch them play Taylor, we got second in our district but they out played a district opponent by a large factor so I told the kids don’t under estimate them their a good team and they’ll give us a big challenge as you could see it was a nail bitter,” said Seven Lakes Coach Amy Davis.
The Redskins (19-1-4) got on the board first when Midfielder Vero Larin scored a goal from the right hash at the 24:56 mark of the game in the first half to give the redskins a 1-0 lead that held up until halftime.
“This game to me was almost a carbon copy of the last game (Katy Taylor) we didn’t think that anybody gave us a chance against Katy Taylor. We were relentless, we didn’t give up, we played to the end and beat them in a shootout. So no one was giving us a chance to beat two Katy Schools in roll so we came out here with that same mentality that we’re the underdogs and we’re going to give it everything we got, we’re going to fight to the end which was what we did. A very good Katy Seven Lakes Team, we fought them to the end. Our motto this year is never give up and fight to the end,” said Lamar’s Coach Ryan Holley.
The twin duo of Mariah and Marissa Caid-Loos kept the Spartans talented forward Shanesse Spratt from scoring at close range.
Seven Lake’s Brianna Yonkin knotted the game with 35 yard free kick that sailed over the head of keeper Kat Magliolo into the net at the 15:53 mark of the second half. From that point the game was tied, to end regulation.
“We played really hard and we had a lot of opportunities we didn’t finish. It took a lot out of us but we worked really hard during the shootout and we pulled out a win,” said Seven Lakes Forward Shanesse Spratt.
Late in the second half Lamar seemed to miss star player Larin who went down with knee injury and never returned.
“Actually my knee popped, I’m not really sure what’s going to happen from here on but I hope to recover so that I can go on to my national club team,” said Lamar’s Sr. Midfielder Vero Larin
Between both scores the game was a defensive struggle.
“I did the best I could, in the first half I scored the goal, it was awesome. We dominated most of the first half. In the second half it was unfortunate that we were scored on but we held it through and I know my teammates did all they could,” said Lamar’s Midfielder Larin.