Dylan Reynolds, Matthew Goudy, Blake Carpenter and Federico Perez

The boys varsity soccer team at Tyler Consolidated started off the 2013 season with a win over the Oak Glen Golden Bears, 2-0. The team ended the 2013 season with Oak Glen as well, this time it was at the Region I, Section II championship on Oct. 26, and the Bears took the win, 5-2, ending the Knights season.

“We were disappointed, to be sure,” said Silver Knight head soccer coach, Scott Wall. “But we didn’t go down without a fight. Our guys played all 80 minutes against a good team who did the same. We have nothing to hang our heads about, I’m very, very proud of the guys and of the effort we gave out there on the field.”

Playing at Oak Glen on Saturday in cold, windy conditions, the Knights found themselves at a disadvantage in the game quickly, falling behind 4-0 by the half.

“We dug ourselves a hole, got behind, and worked like crazy the rest of the game trying to get back on an even keel,” Wall said. “We actually controlled the ball for the majority of the second half, we just couldn’t get it into the back of the net.”

In fact, the Knights took 15 shots on goal, two in the first half, 13 in the second to the Bear’s overall 10 shots in the game.

The bench reacts in the final minutes of the Sectional final game

Scoring the two goals on the Knight side of the scoreboard were senior Matthew Goudy and Federico Perez.

“It came down to getting the ball in the net, and although we were shooting, we just couldn’t get a goal,”the coach said.

In order to get to the Sectional final, Tyler Consolidated had to get past Magnolia first on Oct. 26, which they did to the tune of 2-0. Though the cold, rainy, miserable weather hampered both teams, the Silver held on for the win in order to get to the finals.

Senior Austin Souders took the ball “from coast to coast” to give the Silver and Black their first goal of the game in the first half. Perez scored the second goal in the second.

Goalie Nathan Heintzman had seven saves in an excellent game in goal.

Nathan Heintzman - Matthew Goudy

“I really hate to see the season end,” the coach said. “This has been a great group of guys to work with this year. They’ve worked hard, improved and had fun playing the game. We had more wins than losses with our record of 10-6-3, and that puts us as being successful in my book.”

“It goes without saying that we’ll miss our nine seniors, but that’s the nature of high school sports, they move on.”

“We’re looking forward to building our program next year, adding some new faces and seeing what the season brings.”

Knights end 2013 season