Girls soccer set to face Sherman in home matchup

Drew Gager, Staff Writer • February 14, 2019

Senior Reagan Matacale maneuvers around a defender in the open field.

The girls soccer team is set to face Sherman on Friday night at 7:15 p.m. The girls are coming off of a win against Denison High School on Tuesday, which was their first home district game of the season.

Coach Ian Keeble said after Tuesday’s victory the team feels good about Friday.

“The team is feeling confident after Tuesday’s 4-0 win vs. Denison,” said Keeble. “We are hungry for more and we want to keep performing like we did in the second half on Tuesday.”

The game on Friday at Sherman will be their second away district game, the first of which was a 2-0 loss to Wylie East. Junior Sydney Fluker said the road loss was a learning experience for the young team.

“We lost 2-0, but held our own first half by keeping it 0-0,” Fluker said. “Although we did a lot of great things and fought hard during the game, as a team we realized what we need to work on to improve our game.”

Junior team captain Reagan Matacale identified positives in spite of the recent road loss.

“It was a tough loss, but it showed us how far we’ve come as a team and how much we need to improve,” said Matacale. “I really think our team is becoming a whole rather than a group of individuals which was what Jessie Maashio and I set out to make as captains.”

The team is filled with many young players, as there is only one senior and three juniors on varsity. Keeble said the players are just now getting used to playing with each other.

“The team is 8-4-1 overall,” said Keeble. “We had a couple setbacks to end our pre-district season and to start district against teams who are ranked in the region. Those games were good tests for the team and we definitely learned a lot from those setbacks. I think the girls are playing more like a team. By the end of districts, I feel we should be challenging for the title.”

About the Contributors

Drew Gager, Staff Writer

During his first year with The Red Ledger, sophomore Drew Gager will contribute as a staff writer. His hobbies include golfing and playing video games. He loves to watch football and wants to be a NFL analyst when he grows up. He joined The Red Ledger staff so he could pursue his dreams to be on ESPN and talk about football all day long.. His favorite movie is “Hateful Eight” and he doesn’t have a favorite actor because he believes Samuel L. Jackson, Will Smith, and Denzel Washington are all the best actors of all time. He plans on going to Oklahoma University to major in journalism. After Drew has made five hundred billion dollars doing something (to be determined), he will spend it all on junk food. Drew is a part of a big family at home. He has two sisters and one brother at home, and he knows being a part of The Red Ledger family will be a great experience.

Grace Nguyen, Section Editor

Fueled daily by three iced vanilla coffees, standing at 5’2”, Grace Nguyen will walk into the E103 door with no problem. Grace is entering senior year, and the only reason she is believed to have survived high school is because of the napping couch in the photography studio. During her time on staff, Grace has been to almost every football game, win or loss, and wouldn’t have changed a thing. Yes, Grace has been tackled by football players, run over by coaches, and body slammed by referees. Nonetheless, Grace will confidently walk on the field this year, bruises and all, alongside her sideline media team. Stepping outside the newsroom, which is rare, Grace enjoys playing softball, hanging out with family and friends, and finding excuses to go to every $3 Pazookie Tuesdays at BJ’s. After high school, Grace hopes to pursue a career in sports photojournalism, so watch out for her still getting run over by athletes on ESPN in the years to come. Although it’s bittersweet to leave newspaper upon graduation, Grace is thankful for all the opportunities that she’s had on staff. Through The Red Ledger, Grace created long-lasting friendships and won a lot of awards that she never imagined was possible. Grace hopes that current and future staffers will think of this national-award-winning publication the same way as she did–a second family and their home away from home.