Last week, the varsity Tiger soccer team came out of their losing spell against a few tough 4A teams after beating their biggest rival – La Grange – and tying with another big rival of theirs – Giddings.

La Grange
After being moved to a different day because of snowy weather, the home game against La Grange on Feb. 24 was an important and hard-fought victory for the Tigers, ending with a score of 4-1.
“The Tigers played an outstanding game on defense, with excellent games by Josue Borja, David Mariscal, Jason Thomas and Jake Roberson,” said head coach Tom Hauser. “Jamie Swartz also had a great game in goal and made a lot of critical saves throughout the match, shutting out the La Grange offense for nearly the entire game.”
On offense, Danny Davis and Matt Patrolia dominated the midfield, which allowed the Tiger offense to get past its opponents and set up its goals.
Matt Swartz led the Tigers in scoring, getting a goal in the first and second half.
Jose Jaimes scored a nice goal as well in the first half, and Corey Smith followed him with a hard-fought one towards the end of the match. Smith also contributed to scoring with a few assists.
Patrolia, Swartz, Davis, Jaimes and Smith all had shots on goal.
“It is nice to play 3A schools again after our losses to the 4A schools,” Hauser said. “When the UIL gets around to establishing 3A districts for soccer, the Tigers will do very well in district competition.”

Giddings
Last Friday’s away game against Giddings was a frustrating one.
The game ended with a 1-1 tie, with Giddings’ one point coming from a Tiger own goal, which was a deflection of a throw-in off a Tiger player in the last five seconds of the game.
“This last second tie from an own goal was a heartbreaker for our team, who had worked so hard throughout the game for a victory, which eluded them in the final seconds,” Hauser said.
Nevertheless, the Tigers were able to shut out Giddings for the entire game, with freshman Tommy McDonald doing an excellent job filling in for Swartz, who was not able to play.
With an assist from Davis in the second half, Jaimes drilled a low shot into the net for the Tigers’ only goal of the night.
Swartz, Borja, Davis, James, Smith and Thomas all had shots on goal.
The Tigers play their last three games of the season in the next week against Taylor, Elgin and Manor – all non-district teams.