KHS beats Athens
Girls win close one after OT, shootout; boys win, 1-0; face W'house Tuesday
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

HEADS UP - Kilgore's Suzie Espinoza (right) and an Athens player go for the ball. Espinoza and the Lady Bulldogs won the game in a shootout, 3-2.

Home sweet home never sounded more appropriate than it did this week for the Kilgore High School Lady Bulldogs soccer team.

The Lady 'Dogs went 2-0 here at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium this week, capping the good week with a 3-2 shootout win over Athens Friday night.

The game was tied at 1-all at the end of regulation. Athens led for the bulk of the game before the Lady Bulldogs got goal from Sara Stewart with 9:29 left to tie things up. Neither team could score in the time remaining, and the game went to two 10-minute overtime periods.

Again, neither team managed to score, so the contest went to a shootout. KHS got shootout goals from Jorri Cheshire and from Becca Howard that were the difference in the contest.

The Lady Bulldogs, coached by Amanda Walzel, will visit Whitehouse on Tuesday night

(beginning at 5:30 p.m. with the junior varsity), and then host Lindale Friday.

• Kilgore 1, Athens 0 (JV girls): Coach Alice Crocker's girls needed just one goal to edge Athens, and got it from Jessica Dukes. The JV girls have only one loss in district play this year.

• Kilgore 1, Athens 0 (boys): After playing to a scoreless tie in the first half, the Bulldogs got a goal on a header by Corey Coston, who got an assist from Oscar Davilla.

That would be the only goal of the game, but allowed the Bulldogs to take a big District 17-4A road win. With that victory, Kilgore is now 4-5 in district play, and 7-5-1 overall.

"We played well," coach Kris Duplissey said. "We had some opportunities that we didn't take advantage of. But I thought we played very well."

The win over Athens moves Kilgore up to fifth in the district standings (trying to make the top three to make the playoffs), one game in front of Tuesday's opponent, Whitehouse.

• Kilgore 6, Athens 0 (junior varsity boys): Coach Joey Pippen's team won yet again on Friday night, moving their record to 8-1 overall, 7-1 in district play, and are steamrolling opponents. They've outscored the opposition 37-2.

The Bulldogs' boys soccer teams will visit Lindale on Friday.