KHS falls to MP in tourney final

Photo by Lester Murray GOOOOOOOAALLLLLL! — Kilgore's Corey Coston (15) scored the winning goal against Pittsburg in a shootout on Saturday afternoon in a tournament here at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium. Four games, just one loss and lots of valuable game time — in short, the tournament that the Kilgore High School boys soccer team hosted last weekend was profitable.

"I thought we played very well," first-year coach Michael Bradshaw said. "We were pretty physical. Our seniors that needed to step up did that. Our defense played well. And we only had two goals scored on us in the whole tournament."

Kilgore went 1-1-2, technically, in the tournament, but went on to win both of those ties in shootout play. The Bulldogs' only loss was a hard-fought 1-0 decision to Mount Pleasant in Saturday night's tournament championship game.

And the Bulldogs didn't get much time off, either. They'll play again tonight, making a trip to Nacogdoches to take on the Dragons. Coach Joey Pippen's junior varsity will play at 5:30 p.m., and the varsity will follow.

"Nac's supposed to be pretty good," said Bradshaw. "At least, that's what we've heard. It should be another good test for us."

After going 1-0-1 on Friday (a shootout win over Palestine and a 1-0 win over Whitehouse), Kilgore tied Pittsburg on Saturday afternoon before winning in another shootout. In the shootout victory, it was Corey Coston making the winning goal.

Anyone who'd like to see a Kilgore soccer team in action but doesn't have time to drive to Nac can just go to R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium. Coach Amanda Farmer's KHS girls will play their 2009 home opener, facing Whitehouse tonight. The JV game will begin at 5:30, and the varsity afterward.

The Lady Bulldogs played in a tournament at Mount Pleasant over the weekend, but finished on Friday. They won one game on Thursday, then lost the two Friday games.

See coverage of both KHS soccer games in Wednesday's News Herald.