The Brownwood Lions soccer team concluded an abbreviated pre-district schedule with their first home victory Tuesday, a 3-1 triumph over Godley at Gordon Wood Stadium.
“I was super, super proud of them, super impressed with our performance considering how our last game against Snyder went, then having two games canceled last week,” said Lions head coach Michael Westerman. “We were eager to get on the field and I was super impressed with what we’ve learned with the extra practices we got in last week and how we were able to apply that to today’s game.”
Aidan Pena scored the first two goals of the game for Brownwood – at the 29:05 mark of the first half from 20 yards out on the right side to the bottom left of the goal; and again with 5:58 left in the first half from 30 yards out again on the right side after a deep rebound that deflected off the Godley goal keeper.
“Aidan’s a fantastic player, he does a lot well and covers a lot of ground for us,” Westerman said. “He also has a great shot and it’s something we haven’t got out of him much this season so it’s been something we’ve been pushing, especially after our last game. We have a lot of players that are capable of shooting and that was a big focus this past week.”
The Lions maintained their two-goal advantage until it was cut in half with 17:24 left in the contest, but Brownwood answered with an insurance goal with 4:38 to go as Caden Carnes scored from 10 yards out thanks to an assist from Raven Prado.
“To me, 2-0 is one of the most dangerous leads in soccer because it’s just enough to get comfortable but if they score one goal you lose the momentum of the game and that could change the game,” Westerman said. “How we responded was excellent, we needed a bit of adversity to be tested. We didn’t skip a beat and were able to put another ball in the back of the net.”
The Lions (2-3-1) will visit Lampasas at 7 p.m. Friday in the District 5-4A opener for both teams.
“Being short-changed some games is a bit concerning with so many new players and new styles, so this game was huge for us,” Westerman said. “We’ve learned a lot, we were able to move the ball more, find space and take shots. We’ll be heading into Lampasas with a lot of confidence after this.”