GIRLS SOCCER: Nederland, PNG share District 22-5A championship
Published 12:01 am Wednesday, March 21, 2018
- Ariel Muller of PNG pushes the ball against Livingston on Tuesday. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
The way Nederland dominated Port Arthur Memorial on the girls soccer pitch Tuesday, coach Aaron Tomplait didn’t have to coach the full 80 minutes.
“What it comes down to is, they took care of business,” he said. “I coached some.”
In just his first season with the Bulldogs, Tomplait has led them to a share of the District 22-5A championship. Nederland wrapped up the No. 1 seed going into next week’s 5A playoffs with a 9-0 win at home Tuesday evening.
“It’s pretty awesome; I’m not going to lie,” Tomplait said. “It’s pretty awesome to come in and take that top spot. I don’t know how to explain it, but you can imagine the feeling.”
Port Neches-Groves knows it.
The Indians, outright district champions last year, earned the other share this year after blanking Livingston 6-0 Tuesday at The Reservation. It’s the 10th overall district championship for PNG (20-3-3, 12-2 in 22-5A).
The home team won 1-0 in both matches between Nederland and PNG this season, creating the tie for the title, but a goal differential tiebreaker in 22-5A was used to determine Nederland (19-3-1, 12-2) as the top seed.
Bulldogs junior Meg Sheppard scored three goals in a game for the third time this season and had three or more goals for the fifth time. Destyn Miguez, Brynn Landry, Haley Plumley, Emily Leavins and Madison Diaz also scored, with Memorial scoring an own goal.
Cheyenne Allen, Jenna Brekel, Jordan Minaldi, Abby Gray, Skylar Thomassie, Diaz, Landry and Miguez each made an assist.
Nederland’s bi-district match had not yet been announced as of Tuesday evening.
PNG went ahead 2-0 thanks to two Breeana Riggs goals, but coach Aimee Bates made an offensive adjustment to allow the Indians to get higher-percentage shots off.
Izzy Volk assisted on Ariel Muller’s goal, Mia Delgadillo took a through-ball from Kaylee Landry to score, Jillian Flores converted off a Sophie Brant assist and Muller returned the favor for Volk.
PNG will take on either New Caney or Porter on March 29, but a time and location have not been determined.
Lumberton and Vidor took the third and fourth seeds out of 22-5A.
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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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