The District 5-4A soccer champion Brownwood Lions will head into postseason play with a 13-match unbeaten streak following Thursday’s 2-0 triumph over Lake Worth in playoff warm-up action at Gordon Wood Stadium.

The Lions (12-1-2) tallied a goal in each half against Lake Worth (12-10-2) – the fourth-place team from District 8-4A – while holding a fourth consecutive opponent scoreless during regulation.

“It was a whirlwind game with a lot of highs and several lows,” said Lions head coach Michael Westerman. “We knew going into this game there was different things we wanted to look at, different formations and tactics, rotate different people in different spots, but the expectations were still high. Lake Worth is very athletic, very physical and very dangerous on the attack, but I’m very pleased with the result although there were things they exposed us on that we need to clean up.”

With exactly two minutes left in the first half, the Lions recorded their first goal when Isaac Morales scored on a penalty kick.

“Isaac is probably our most technical kid with the ball at his feet,” Westerman said. “We preached at the beginning of the season to dump in a long throw, put it in the box and let’s go and gamble. Recently we’ve been switching since we’re a smaller team and winning the ball in the air is a bit more difficult. We’ve been looking at playing Isaac’s feet if we have space. Once he dribbles in that box he can be creative, and that’s the hardest thing for a defender to do when they’re in their own box. He was able to receive the ball and enter that 18-yard box and worked his magic a little bit and they clipped him to draw a PK, which he put in the back of the net.”

Brownwood added an insurance goal from Brody Byrd with 10:55 left in the contest.

“That was Brody’s second goal this season,” Westerman said. “That’s another talented kid that can go unnoticed because he’s a little quiet, but when the ball is in his area or at his feet he’ll do something creative with it. It came off a foul which they gave us inside the box. We laid it off to Eli Valenciano who had a nice shot, a low driven shot in traffic on frame, so they deflected that back post and Brody was in the right spot at the right time and able to put it in the back of the net.”

In regard to another scoreless regulation turned in by the defense, Westerman said, “Wins are important, but being able to get a shutout is more important than scoring goals for me. If you look back at the Stephenville game we prevented them from scoring, so even if we don’t score we go into shootouts and it gives us an opportunity to win the game.”

The Lions will next face either Ferris (15-3-2) or Godley (12-5) out of District 6, who square off Friday, in Class 4A Division II Region I bi-district action next week. Details have not yet been finalized.

“I’m very confident right now and continue preaching the mindset of every game is now for the state title,” Westerman said. “At the beginning of the season we talked that every game is for a district title, and we spoke that into existence and started to believe more and more with every win. Now that we accomplished that, it’s in the past and a clean slate for us and every other team in the playoffs. Our mentality going into next week is every game is for a state title. We’re only guaranteed one game and we’re going to make the most of it.”