Bearcats secure playoff berth

EDITORS NOTE: The location of the girls' soccer playoff game was corrected at the end of this article.

The Aledo high school soccer teams traveled to Granbury Tuesday night and split their matches, but both will still be advancing to the postseason. 

The Bearcats needed to win their match to secure at least a fourth-place finish in District 5-5A and came out with a dominant 8-1 win over the Pirates to do just that.

Next up for Aledo (13-3-6) is District 6-5A champion Fort Worth Arlington Heights (17-4-2) in bidistrict. Game details, including date, site and time, were still being worked out at press time.

The Bearcats finished league play with a 5-3-4 record, a game ahead of fifth-place Wichita Falls Rider, against whom they owned a tiebreaker by virtue of winning 5-3 at home and tying 2-2 in Wichita Falls. The top spot in district was actually a three-way tie between Northwest, Brewer and Saginaw, all at 8-2-2.

Sophomores Trapper Davis and Brody Gill connected twice for two goals each, Robby Sloan, Evan Randriamahefa, Cole Crawford, and Ryan Spriggs also contributed to the Bearcat scoring barrage.

The Pirates scored their only goal at the 14:50 mark of the first half and Aledo kept the ball in the Pirates' half of the field for the majority of the second half of the game.

Lady Pirates 3, Ladycats 1

After falling behind 2-0 to the Lady Pirates, Coach Brian Johnson’s team made it close at the 4:43 mark of the first half when Allyson Weimer scored a goal and Ainsley Elmore assited. The Ladycats and trailed 2-1 at halftime before Granbury added an insurance goal.

Despite the loss, the Ladycats (9-8-3 overall, 6-4-2 in district) remained second in District 5-5A, narrowly ahead of Azle and Northwest, which tied for third with 6-5-1 league marks. Wichita Falls Rider won the league.

Up next for the Ladycats is Everman (11-10-1), the third-place team from District 6-5A. The game will be played at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, at J E Marr Stadium in Everman.

“Spot two goals, have to come from behind, I told the girls at halftime we can come back and win this.” Johnson said. “We had a good practice, we looked good warming up but we just couldn’t put it all together.”

Members of the Aledo Ladycats soccer team show their support for Kade Pruitt, a fellow student who has been diagnosed with leukemia.

After the game the team posed with a sign for a young man, Kade Pruitt, who has been diagnosed with leukemia, to show love and support for him and his family.