The last time the Brownwood Lions secured an outright district soccer championship, Michael Westerman was on the field, but as a player. Friday night at Gordon Wood Stadium, the fifth-year head coach for the Lions guided the program to a 5-4A crown, completing a flawless league run with a penalty kick shootout victory over the rival Stephenville Yellow Jackets.
“When I took the program over my plan was to do the best I could to try and bring this program back to how it was whenever I left here,” Westerman said. “My senior year in 2013 we went undefeated in district and were able to bring home a district title, and I wanted to be able to return the favor and pour into the program that poured into me. It feels amazing and incredible to be able to replicate that. These boys have earned every bit of this for the years and years of working and chipping away and just trying to earn the respect of each other and the community and trying to put us in a position to be noticed as a program that wants to be recognized.”
After playing to a scoreless tie in regulation, the match went to a penalty kick shootout, which pits five kickers from each team against the opposing goal keeper, firing a shot at the net from 12 yards out.
In Friday’s district finale, both the Lions (11-1-2, 8-0) and Stephenville (9-8-4, 6-2) made their first two kicks, with Aiden Jimenez and Eli Valenciano converting for Brownwood. On the Yellow Jackets’ third attempt, goalie Hudson Fry made a lunging save to his right, giving the Lions the advantage. Alex Vaquera further enhanced Brownwood’s chance for victory by sinking the third straight shot for the Lions.
Stephenville’s fourth attempt was also batted away by Fry, giving the Lions two opportunities to make just one more goal to wrap up the district championship
“Hudson’s incredible,” Westerman said. “I say it all the time and I’ll continue to say it, we have the best goal keeper in the district. We finish every practice with pens and it’s difficult trying to get it past Hudson. We feel confident going into pens because we know how phenomenal Hudson is and what he does in the box.”
With the title within their grasp, the Lions secured the victory when captain Jermiah Chacon delivered the fourth consecutive successful kick in the extra session, as the Brownwood players on the sideline mobbed Chacon and Fry.
“That’s something we just practice over and over,” Westerman said of the shootout. “Whether it’s a light practice or a hard practice, the boys always know we finish on pens. There’s punishment for every miss, and on the last kick there’s double the punishment. We put pressure on them and do everything we can to replicate this feeling. The boys just rose to the occasion and were comfortable and confident. They knew they had the entire program rallying behind them as well.”
During regulation, the Lions were on the defensive much of the time as Stephenville owned the possession battle, yet couldn’t get a ball past the Brownwood defense.
“I can’t say enough about Hudson and our entire back line and the effort they put in every single game,” Westerman said. “It’s nice to be a team that doesn’t concede a whole lot of goals.”
Offensively for the Lions, their best chance to score came with 16:20 left in the second half, as Raven Prado fired a shot from 25 yards out, but the Stephenville goal keeper was able to leap and deflect the ball just over the top of the net.
The Lions, who extended their unbeaten streak to 12 matches with Friday night’s victory, will next host Lake Worth (11-9-2) at 6 p.m. Thursday in a playoff warm-up match at Gordon Wood Stadium. Brownwood will then face Godley (11-5) from District 6 in two weeks in the bi-district round of the Class 4A Division II playoffs at a site, date, and time to be determined.