THE SIDEKICK SPORTS Sidekick Online @CHSCampusNews @thesidekickcoppell
Long way down First half hopes crushed by Allen in Cowboy comeback falls short second half surge Torie Peck Sports Editor @torielpeck
M
cKINNEY - The stage was set. Same place, same stakes, one year later. Last night, the Coppell girls soccer team faced the Allen Eagles in the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs at McKinney ISD Stadium in a win-or-gohome matchup. The Cowgirls stepped up to this challenge, ready to face its opponent. But it wasn’t enough, the Cowgirls (15-5-2) season ended in the same fashion as last years bi-district match, and fell to the Eagles (18-2-3), 3-1, ending its season. “[Allen’s] forwards are really good so we had to keep them at bay,” Coppell coach Fleur Benatar-Whitten said. “Scoring was hard for us. We had a couple of chances that we should have had but didn’t, [along with] finishing and recovering after our goal.” The match was scoreless at the half. Knowing that the Eagles would likely switch up its play style, the Cowgirls adjusted. “We knew they were going to change their system so we had to be ready to change if they changed and we adjusted,” Be-
natar said. “We had to keep people moving in and out. There was an ebb and flow to that [second] half, people were getting tired so we had to watch minutes. There were a lot of things going on.” Within the first three minutes of the second half, Allen senior forward Taylor Spitzer put the first score on the board. Six minutes later, Coppell senior forward Reneta Vargas tied the game, capitalizing off a kick to the center of the net. “[Vargas] went out right after the goal, that hurt us a bit and we didn’t know if she [was going to come back out],” Benatar said. “Overall, she’s the one that could make or break things in the final third. It hurt not having her there and disrupted our flow. We had to recover and keep filling gaps until we could figure out when she was going back on and what we were doing.” The Cowgirls held the 1-1 tie until the 15:31 mark, when Spitzer braced and sent Allen to victory. Shortly thereafter, another Allen goal finished the Cowgirls season. “We had a great season and next year is going to be good, we have a lot of work to do with other people,” Benatar said. “It’s going to be about how well they can work together and how well I can groom the next group.”
Coppell senior midfielder Pedro Perez-Pareka steals against Allen junior defender Jackson Donato at McKinney ISD Stadium on Friday. Coppell ended its season after losing, 2-0, to Allen in the Class 6A Region 1 bi-district playoffs. Angelina Liu
Anjali Krishna Editor-In-Chief @anjalikrishna_
McKINNEY – Coppell coach James Balcolm, through this momentous season for the Coppell boys soccer team, spoke often about the law of averages: his simple belief that with the number of opportunities the Cowboys were creating, they must eventually start to go in and average out their losing record. Balcolm was proven correct; the Cowboys, after losing or tying its first eight district matches, at the bottom of District 6-6A standings, would take five consecutive wins to qualify for the Class 6A Region I bi-district playoffs against Allen at McKinney ISD Stadium on Friday. However, the clock ran out for the Cowboys before the averages could balance themselves out against the Eagles. Coppell fell to the Eagles, 2-0, ending its season, 7-9-6. “Loss is always painful but the last one just sucks the most,” Balcolm said. “It shows their resilience and their fight to stage this comeback, and go toe-to-toe with Allen in the first round of playoffs. This group overcame everything and they put themselves in a place to get Coppell freshman defender Tabitha Sine looks for a pass from a chance to beat the best team Coppell senior defender Michelle Pak. The Cowgirls season end- in the state.” Coppell arrived with momened with a 3-2 loss in the Class 6A Region 1 bi-district playoffs. tum it carried for the past five Nandini Muresh
matches from its kickoff, creating opportunities play by play. The first of these was junior midfielder Ryder Brock’s shot to the goalpost with 23 remaining minutes in the first half. Though Brock’s shot hit the post without finding the net, the Cowboys were in control. Yet Allen, District 5-6A champions with a fierce, young team, responded. While Coppell created opportunities, the Eagles created a magnificent play: a free kick from junior midfielder Dylan Berry went precisely to senior midfielder Diego Morales, then perfectly past Coppell senior goalkeeper Arath Valdez. “Unfortunately, that goal was enough tonight,” Balcolm said. “We battled hard. I know the boys know that.” Though the Eagles would keep this lead through the match, the score by no means reflected the continual Coppell fight. Allen’s defense struggled to fight off a set piece off corner kicks, while Allen goalkeeper Alec Setterberg defended against free kicks from Stone, sophomore midfielder Sam Stone and Coppell junior midfielder Preston Taylor. “That first half was one of the best we ever played,” Taylor said. “We worked so hard down to the last minute.” Still, the Cowboys’ earlier season plague followed them
throughout the match, as each of the many opportunities went just wide, just over or safe into the arms of Setterberg. Only in the 80th minute was it over for the Cowboys, fighting through the end, as Allen junior midfielder Evan Pustejovsky sank a shot deep to the net. With most of the team on the opposite goal, worn-out by 80 minutes of back and forth, no Cowboys were able to return and defend. “The ending was ruthless,” Coppell senior midfielder Pedro Peréz-Pareja said. “They were huge; we had nobody over six feet on our team, while they were all physical, their whole starting lineup over six foot.” Allen advances to play Irving in the Class 6A Region I area playoffs, while the Cowboys end their season. “All year, it started off that we couldn’t get the win, we couldn’t get the goal,” Balcom said. “We probably created over a 100 scoring opportunities and they’re not going in so eventually, they’ve somehow got to start going in. And a couple finally did. Law of averages started to work out. Same thing goes tonight. We’re hitting the post, all over the goal, and the keeper is making saves. Just didn’t work out with the clock tonight. But we knew we were doing everything right to beat the top team in the state tonight.”
Coach’s Box: Minick joins CHS for first year as head softball coach Yaamini Jois Staff Writer
APRIL 2022
@yjois12
After three years as an assistant coach at Colleyville Heritage, Ashley Minick came to Coppell in 2021 as head softball coach. How is the season going with your new team? They are gritty, and they’re coachable, which I love about them. I came in with a lot of different and new ideas, and they adapted to it. I appreciate the way I can help them get better by saying, “Hey, you did a great job doing this, this is how we can make it better,” because they buy into it. At their next game, they do what we’ve discussed. You never have to continue to push through - it’s more like ‘let’s try this’, and they do it.
As a coach, what key area do you focus on? To be honest, it has nothing to do with skill. At the end of the day, we’ve worked on confidence. A big part of the game is going in there and knowing the mental part of the game. It’s important to have confidence in yourself, to trust in your skills and just play softball. We’ve been working really hard on saying that we can do it, and focusing on what we can control. What are your plans for the future with this program? We will focus on finding consistency in our plays and hits, and continuing to have confidence in ourselves. Each person is gaining more and more conCoppell High School softball coach Ashley Minick joined Coppell after three years as an assistant fidence, and I love that, so we coach at Colleyville Heritage. Minick hopes her presence will allow for consistency and confi- want to continue to build off of dence within the team. Olivia Cooper each other.
