By BRAD KEITH
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (March 1, 2018) — Friday marks the middle of the District 4-4A soccer campaign. Teams compete in their fifth district matches with four more to play.
Technically at halftime of their respective matches, each boys and girls team will be exactly halfway through district play.
But for the Stephenville Honeybees, who started 3-0 on the road and made it 4-0 in their initial home match of district play on Tuesday, a win Friday would push them much farther along than just halfway to a district title.
Stephenville has just one road match remaining, that being the eighth district game, it’s last versus second-place Abilene Wylie, the team it shared the district title with last season, though the Bees came out of it the No. 1 seed thanks to goal differential. It’s the second time Stephenville has shared a district title with Wylie, and that was the first time they came out as the No. 1 seed.
The Bees won their first state championship last season, but have never won a district title outright.
But a win Friday would give Stephenville a two-game lead over Wylie, and 2-0 advantage in head’s up play. Wylie would have to win out and get help just to share the title and be the No. 2 seed behind the Bees. They would need a lot of help to overtake them for first in the district.
Stephenville, thanks to inclement weather moving two of their initial three district matches to the opponents’ home fields, is in the midst – weather allowing – of playing five of its final six regular season matches at home.
The Bees already have a 2-0 mark against Mineral Wells and 1-0 marks against Wylie and Brownwood. None of the first-loop matches were easy, nor were they expected to be in a district featuring four teams that all won at least two playoff matches a season ago.
Stephenville won 1-0 at Mineral Wells, 2-1 at Wylie and 0-0 (3-2) in a shootout at Brownwood. The Bees did turn it on at home against Mineral Wells Tuesday with three Ciara Johnston assists and goals from five different players in a 5-0 rout. The defense seems to never turn it off, finalizing a ninth clean sheet during the current 10-match win streak, and allowing one goal to Wylie is no slouch of a defensive performance in itself.
That doesn’t mean Wylie won’t be up to the task, as Wylie always seems to be. The last time Stephenville played Wylie at home, a dramatic shootout went to sudden death before the Bees won in stunning fashion. That was the first in a series of special moments last spring, culminating in head coach Casey Weil, hopping, skipping, jumping then sprinting onto the pitch, arms high in the air to celebrate once the final horn sounded and the Bees were champions of Conference 4A.
Nothing about facing Wylie is ever easy, and there is no reason to believe that will change Tuesday.
But easy or not, if it is a Honeybee win, Stephenville moves within two victories of guaranteeing itself the No. 1 seed from 4-4A, and also inches closer to its first outright district title.
And anyone laying claim to the title in a league boasting four teams having advanced three rounds deep the preceding spring is automatically on the list of contenders for the title that matters most, the one Stephenville has waited a year to defend.
It’s not even halftime in 4-4A until halftime of this evening’s games. But it’s a safe bet Wylie knows that this is a make or break match as far as its district title hopes go.
Nothing is easy in 4-4A. That’s why all four teams walk away playoff seasoned before the post season ever begins.
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