Teams ready to kick off soccer season
Published January 9, 2008
The second annual Pearland/Friendswood Soccer Tournament kicks off Thursday, and this year, there will be two tournament champions.
Sixteen teams will be spilt in four different pools. Pool A and B will play in Pearland’s The Rig and Pressner Stadium while Pool C and D converge on Friends-wood’s Henry Winston Memorial Stadium.
Players in Pearland, Pool A teams include Alvin, Friendswood, Lamar Consolidated, Houston Madison; and Pool B consists of Baytown Sterling, Pasadena Dobie, Houston Reagan and Texas City
At Friendswood’s field will be Pearland, Dickinson, Foster and Vidor in Pool C and Manvel, La Porte, Galena Park and Clear Creek in Pool D.
“This is a pretty tough tournament with 4A power Friendswood along with Lamar Consolidated, who is a top 10 region squad,” Pearland coach William Jones said. “Alvin was a playoff team from last year, Clear Creek is young but powerful and Galena Park will be another team that is bringing a pretty good squad.”
Tournament play begins Thursday and runs through Saturday.
The Oilers return 14 lettermen including leading scorer Michael Hudson, who hit the back of the net 22 times last season along with 12 assists.
“In both of our scrimmages last week we played timid in the first half against (Katy) Seven Lakes and also left the backside wide open which cost us as well,” Jones said. “In the second half we moved the ball around better, scored a goal but had some missed opportunities. In the nightcap with Atascocita we took it at them for 80 minutes and gave up one shot on frame. We did all of this without Hudson who was out.”
Pearland opens tournament play at 5:30 p.m. Thursday versus Vidor at Pressner. On Friday the Oilers play at The Rig for a 7:30 p.m. matchup with Dickinson and close out pool play with Foster at 10 a.m. Saturday back at The Rig.
Alvin will play all of its matches in Friendswood and will open against the Mustangs, region quarterfinalist from last season, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
On Friday, Alvin plays Madison at 3:30 p.m. and then closes out with Lamar Consolidated at 8 a.m. Saturday. The Yellowjackets return two starters from last season’s playoff squad — midfielder Dustin Botting and forward Justin Strain.
Manvel will make its varsity debut versus La Porte at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Pressner Stadium. The Mavericks, under the tutelage of Daniel Chapa, finished 12-1-1 in 2007 as a junior varsity squad and were co-district champions with Friendswood.
Junior defender Tyler Vincent and midfielder Eric Lozano will lead the Mavericks on the field. Manvel plays at 11 a.m. Friday at The Rig versus Creek and closes out pool play at 10 a.m. Saturday against Galena Park.
The top two seeds from Group A and B will play for the championship at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Friendswood and the top two seeds from Group C and D will do the same at The Rig.
Third-place contests will start at 4:30 p.m. at each location.
Joel Luna is the sports editor for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 237-0160