Chaps fall to Bobcats

Chaps fall to Bobcats By Martin Edwards Staff Writer

The Aubrey Chaparrals opened the district portion of their schedule in a matchup against the rival Celina Bobcats on Jan. 22, with the Bobcats taking the win 2-0.

The two teams appeared to be evenly matched for most of the contest, but Celina was able to exploit the holes it found in Aubrey’s defense in the first half and held on to win.

“We had to play very defensively because Celina’s midfield is very talented,” Aubrey head boys soccer coach James DuMond said. “They did a good job of moving the ball around. We need to do a better job of not being so late to the press, not letting people turn and get things going, and stopping drives before they start on us. We [also] had a lot of guys out there that were battling injuries and illnesses, and I'm not making excuses, but we look forward to playing them the second time around when we're healthy.”

Celina took the lead in the first half on a breakaway counterattack where the ball handler found a gap near Aubrey’s back post.

The Bobcats added their second goal off a corner kick with 1:37 left in the first half, sending the two teams into the halftime locker room with Celina up 2-0.

The Chaps, who were also battling a case of influenza that was making its way through the roster, played more effectively in the second half, keeping the Bobcats off the scoreboard, but failed to find the net themselves.

“We don’t believe in excuses, so I won’t say it was the main reason we lost, but it did play a factor,” Du-Mond said. “We were missing two of our top guys, but there were a lot of things we did wrong that we have to fix, so we’ll go back and [work on] them. We just started district, and we have a long way to go.”

DuMond highlighted the performance of senior goalkeeper Jackson Goble, who helped lead the Chaps’ second- half shutout.

DuMond said the Chaps would take inventory after the loss but emphasized that he and his team were ready to move on to the next opponent.

“I told them, ‘Drink a lot of orange juice, get plenty of rest, let’s clean up our mistakes and let’s get ready for the next one,’” he said. “We’re going to be forwardthinking [and] solution-oriented.”

Aubrey followed the loss against Celina with a 4-0 win over the Bonham Purple Warriors on Saturday and a 3-0 loss to the Farmersville Farmers on Tuesday night, bringing its district record to 1-2.

The Chaps will return to the pitch on the road against the Gainesville Leopards at 7:15 p.m. Friday at Leopard Stadium.