The Wiregrass girls soccer team beat the Wharton Wildcats on Thursday, January 24th, winning 1-0.

The girls were coming off of a tough loss to Cypress Creek, losing a close game after a free kick goal. This prompted head coach Edwin Costa to make some adjustments before their game against Wharton.

“Since we lost to Cypress off of a set piece, our training session consisted of putting in defenses for set pieces, and controlling the inside of the box,” Costa commented.

Wiregrass lost to Wharton earlier in the year 2-0, but they came to play with a vengeance in this game.

“They [Wharton] came out thinking that this was going to be an easy game and we wanted to win more than they did and it showed,” Senior outside back Marin Yeagle said.

The first half of the game was very defensive, with both teams making great stands in their own ends of the field. The Bulls almost broke the 0-0 tie very early into the half, after a misplay by the Wharton goalie led to a close attempt for the Bulls.

Ten minutes later, the Wharton goalie came out of the net to play a through ball, but was beat to the ball by senior forward Katherine Llanos, who took advantage of the empty net and scored the first and only goal of the game.

“It was the best feeling scoring the winning goal. When I scored I felt like a weight was lifted off of our shoulders,” Llanos explained.

The second half of the game was controlled thoroughly by Wiregrass, but they failed to capitalize on opportunities to increase the score. Freshman forward Rylee Humphries almost scored with 35 minutes left in the half, after beating the goalie in the box, but she shanked the ball to the left of the goal, keeping the score at 1-0.

Junior midfielder Kylee Ehman had her shot at making the score 2-0, but hit the crossbar on a strike from just outside of the box. Senior goalie Mackenzie Spurling showed defensive prowess with a good save after a cross into the box by Wharton shortly after. With 6 minutes left, Spurling made another save after a great through ball by Wharton led to a shot inside the box.

The girls will now move on to play in the Semi-Finals in the District Championship tournament on Tuesday, January 29th, at 5 p.m at home against Plant.