GODLEY – Coming off a District 5-4A co-championship, along with the most wins and fewest losses in a single season in program history, the Brownwood Lady Lions were placed into a bi-district soccer playoff match-up with top-ranked, undefeated Waxahachie Life, due to the UIL’s decision this school year to split each classification into two divisions based on enrollment for the postseason.

The result Thursday was a frustrating 4-0 loss for the Lady Lions, whose season ended for the second year in a row at the hands of Waxahachie Life. Last year, however, Brownwood was entering the playoffs as a four seed against a district champion. In years past, the Lady Lions – who wound up as the No. 2 seed from District 5-4A as Stephenville won the tiebreaker – would faced the third-place team from District 6 instead of its league champion as was the case this year.

“That’s how the cards were dealt, unfortunately,” said Lady Lions head coach Alexis Walker. “Last year we’d sown our own seeds as a fourth-place team playing a first-place team. This year we’re co-champs and we play the No. 1 team, undefeated, it’s just a tough situation. We don’t give excuses, the girls hung with it and played to the best of their ability. Hats off to Waxahachie, they have a good group of girls and they’ll make a deep run in the playoffs.”

The Lady Lions (18-5-1) surrendered a pair of goals to Waxahachie Life (24-0) in the first 10 minutes of the first half, another in the first two minutes of the second half, and the final goal with 23 minutes left in the contest.

“They were prepared for us, and I really think we were prepared for them,” Walker said. “We knew going in from watching the film they were going to be physical, but it wasn’t anything we weren’t used to. They’re just very, very good up top, and had a good team to back them up.”

The Lady Lions will say good bye to eight seniors, who completed their high school careers by rewriting the girls soccer record book at Brownwood High School.

“This year was huge for us,” Walker said. “We broke a lot of records and that was because of our senior leadership. They were leaders on the field, leaders in the classroom and leaders everywhere they were. I can’t thank them enough for their four years they dedicated to this program. Because of them, we were very successful this season.”