U19 Chupacabras place third in state tournament

The U19 Lockhart Chupacabras competed at the South Texas Youth Soccer Association State Championships on Dec. 9 and 10. Their first game was against the Quest Barcelona. Playing with no subs and missing the talents of Seth Guckian, Alex Pfefferkorn and Tommy Garza, the Lockhart boys played extremely well against an excellent team that went on to become the state champions. D

avid Moore made two goals in the game but the final score was 3-2 in Barcelona”s favor. Game Two saw the return of Guckian and had the Chupacabras facing the first place Eastern District team, the Bellaire Flying Eagles. An intense game ended in a 2-2 tie, with Moore and Michael Williams doing the scoring honors. Game three on Sunday added drizzle to the cold as Lockhart squared off against Gregory-Portland United. The team was glad to have Pfefferkorn back on defense for the last game of the championship, which ended in a 1-1 tie with Dwin Roland putting the ball in for the score. James Kellum did his usual excellent job at keeper throughout the tournament, and the whole team showed tremendous determination and strength against some incredibly talented teams. At the end of the competition, the Chupacabras placed third in the state in the U19 age division.
On Dec. 3 the boys competed in the Western District Championships in San Antonio in order to qualify for the state tournament. The first game against Gregory-Portland United saw the Chupacabras coming out ahead 3-1 with two goals by Roland and one by Tommy Garza. The second game was against Marble Falls Granite Country Knights. With plenty of history and one win and one loss between the two teams in regular season play, this was the game to win. Roland took care of that with a beautiful bicycle kick into the goal that even the Knights had to admit was a show-stopper. The game ended with a 1-0 score, making the Lockhart team the 2006 Western District Champions.
U19 is the top age group for the South Texas Youth Soccer Association. Many of these boys have been playing soccer since they were four years old on U6 teams through the Lockhart Youth Soccer Association. LYSA congratulates the boys on the Chupacabras, who have made it to the state championships the last two years. LYSA also extends its thanks and appreciation to Ray Pfefferkorn, who retires as a LYSA coach/manager this season after starting his coaching career as a U6 coach 14 years ago.