By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS (April 8, 2017) — The last two years, it’s almost been a punch line.
How far can Stephenville go in girls soccer? Until they reach Kennedale.
But led by a head coach who told his team, the media and anyone who would listen that “it’s time,” and by a couple senior defenders with one freshman as well as a freshman keeper who have lined up clean sheet after clean sheet – they have allowed only one goal in five playoff matches – the Honeybees have buried the punch line.
It’s not longer funny. It will no longer even be said.
How far can the Honeybees go?
Three words.
All the way.
When the season began I asked Coach Weil to tell me a little about his team and he kind of shrugged and laughed. He reminded me how hard it is to replace the 16 graduating seniors from a year ago. He informed me he would have nine freshmen on the varsity to begin the year.
But on Saturday, in the Region I-4A girls soccer championship, the Honeybees proved that it is time. Their time.
Anyone whose name was called seemed to immediately find a way to contribute. Everyone who took the pitch fought like hell.
Freshman Beatris Chavarria marked two of the top goal scorers in Texas the last two days without allowing a goal. Not that oftentimes frustrated Kennedale star Erika McIntyre didn’t give it everything she had Saturday, clanging a shot off the cross bar in each half.
Savannah Alford was there to clear just about everything away.
Madison Wyly made saves, and so did Alyssa Northcutt, called upon when Wyly was inured saving a shot against a post and immediately saving two shots herself. The keepers were at their best when the Bees needed them most – during a relentless Kennedale charge lasting about 15 minutes in the second half.
Then Northcutt did the unthinkable. She not only stopped the first Kennedale penalty after two overtimes and watched the third go wide, but with a chance to clinch the program’s first regional title and state tournament berth, she read the “hips and eyes” (her words) of the electrifying left-footed McIntyre, then the keeper slid to her left, fell back to her right and covered up the biggest save in Honeybee soccer history.
Players charged from the sideline. Fans would have charged, too, if not for the constant reminders they were not allowed on the field (and the police presence, that probably helped). Casey Weil was still shaking head 20 minutes later, when the Bees had moved their celebration off the field and sideline to make room for the boys regional final that they had pushed about an hour late.
The Honeybees are a clear case of a talented but “too young” underdog who BEE-lieved when no one else did. Then they backed it up by doing the un-BEE-lieveable.
Now they’re preparing to make a BEE line for Georgetown, and from the comments I gathered during interviews following Saturday’s magical victory, you can bet the farm they BEE-lieve they are about to win a state title.
So from now on, especially for the next three years, when someone asks about girls soccer, Kennedale won’t even be part of the answer. Because there is no longer any kind of punch line associated with Stephenville girls soccer.
The answer is state. The Bees can go to state. The Bees ARE going to state.
And for the other regional champs who punched their tickets to the state tourney Saturday, you best BEE-lieve hell is coming with them.
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