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WEDNESDAY PREP REPORT: HOUSTON WINS REGION TITLE IN TENSE PENALTY SHOOTOUT

Wednesday prep report: Houston wins region title in tense penalty shootout

JOHN VARLAS

Daily Memphian | 5/15/2024

PHOTO CREDIT: Tyler Nutt

Houston soccer coach David Wolff said he doesn’t typically watch penalties. Heck, Shelby County’s winningest coach rarely even finds his team in the most precarious of positions when it comes to deciding matches.

But Bartlett took the Mustangs to penalties Wednesday in the Region 8-AAAA title match. And Wolff felt confident enough to watch.

He liked what he saw, especially at the end as Andrew Dunn converted the winner to give the Mustangs the victory after 100 minutes of intense, high-level high school soccer. Houston will now host the runner-up from Region 7-AAAA on Saturday, while the Panthers will travel to face the champion.

Both winners will advance to Spring Fling. But those matches will be hard-pressed to equal this one, which ended 1-1 after regulation and overtime.

“Using the players and their input and the assistant coaches and then my input, I thought everybody was very confident in what they were doing,” said Wolff of the deciding shootout. “I wanted to top load; I had Hays (Adams) and Jack (Langford) and then I thought, ‘who do I want for this to happen?’

“Dunn was ready and emotionally ready and he just finished. They just buried them ... but this game doesn’t matter if we don’t take care of business Saturday.”

Ethan Watts capped off a spell of good Bartlett pressure in the first half with a goal that put his team up, 1-0. Trotter Jones’ header early in the second half leveled the score and from there, the match looked destined for penalties.

Houston went first and each team converted its first two attempts. Langford got Houston’s third before Bartlett’s Roman Dawidow hit the post.

Jones then scored off the post for Houston, and Chris Perez responded to keep Bartlett alive. But Dunn didn’t miss.

Walking off the field, Bartlett’s Brayden Lemonds — who converted his penalty — held his thumb and index finger just a tiny fraction apart. He was right; the margin between the two teams was ever so close.

“I thought they had (the advantage at) the beginning of the game,” Wolff said. “They had about 10 or 15 minutes of the first half... Click here to read full article

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