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TAPPS soccer championship recaps: Grapevine Faith wins third title in four years; Covenant School, FW Nolan fall short

Read about the boys and girls championship games featuring Dallas-area teams here.

Editor’s note: This story will be updated throughout Friday and Saturday as games go final.

Below are stories for TAPPS soccer championship games featuring Grapevine Faith, Fort Worth Nolan and Covenant School (Dallas). Find pairings for the entire playoffs here.

Grapevine Faith — Girls

WACO — With nothing to show for its dominance over the opening 58 minutes of the TAPPS Division II girls state soccer match, Grapevine Faith Christian guarded against frustration and just kept plugging away.

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Finally, persistence paid off with a pair of goals in a three-minute stretch of the second half to carry Grapevine Faith to a 2-0 victory over San Antonio Christian Friday afternoon at Waco ISD Stadium.

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The state title was the second in succession and the third in four years for Grapevine Faith (18-0) and head coach Cat Meyer.

“It was just a matter of time before we were going to figure out how to beat that back line," said Meyer.

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A shanked clearance pass by San Antonio Christian provided junior Annie Severide with the chance for the opening goal.

“Against a good team, you have to take advantage of the opportunities you get," said Severide. Her shot from 18 yards went off the head of a defender before settling in the net.

Three minutes later junior Landri Trueblood made it 2-0 when her shot from 25 yards came off the outstretched fingertips of the San Antonio Christian keeper.

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“I had a wide-open shot and decided to take it," Trueblood said. “Even though we were up 1-0, we needed a second goal."

San Antonio Christian (23-5) had outscored its last seven opponents 41-3.

The shutout was the 13th of the season for Grapevine Faith. Keeper Sydney Raccasi, a junior, praised her back line keyed by center-back Sydney Mammoser.

Said Mammoser: “It feels so good — an undefeated season. I wouldn’t want a senior year to end any other way."

Covenant School — Girls

WACO — Sophomore Emilie Rompel scored three goals and assisted on another to lead Schertz John Paul II to a 4-1 victory over Dallas’ The Covenant School Friday afternoon in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools Division III girls soccer state championship game at Waco ISD Stadium.

Unscored on in three previous playoff matches, The Covenant conceded with 3:07 remaining in the opening half on a 20-yard snap shot by Rompel to trail 1-0 at intermission.

The Covenant (17-5-1), making its first state final appearance, equalized 18 seconds into the final half on Naomi Daniels’ bouncing shot from 30 yards that escaped the keeper’s smothering attempt and trickled into the net.

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John Paul (16-1-0) regained the lead for good five minutes later when Rompel’s crossfire shot found the left side of the net.

Just past the midway point in the final half Rompel buried her third goal from 15 yards.

Freshman Madeline Seebeck completed the scoring with 13 minutes remaining on a five-yard tap-in after taking a pass from Rompel.

“We didn’t defend as well as we have been," said The Covenant coach Kirk Redding. “We had some missed assignments and got tired at the end. But overall it was a very good season for us."

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Freshman midfielder Kaitlin Swann and captains Ellis Fox and Ella Giese played well for The Covenant. Redding has the program on the right trajectory with four more wins than last season.

Covenant School — Boys

WACO - Dallas Covenant, in a rematch of last season's TAPPS Division III Boys Soccer championship, fell to Houston St. Thomas Episcopal 1-0, at Waco ISD Stadium.

Senior Midfielder Sam Jones scored from about 15 yards out just 3:19 into the contest, and that was enough for St. Thomas Episcopal (28-4-0) to claim its third TAPPS title in five years, including a 2-1 decision over Covenant a year ago.

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Dallas Covenant (15-8-1), playing in its third consecutive TAPPS championship match, winning the title in 2018, had perhaps its best scoring opportunity 8:55 before intermission when junior Midfielder Jacob Scott blasted a free center kick from 25 yards away that was just battled away by HSTE Goalkeeper Greyson Brewer, a St. Edward's University signee who posted four shutouts and allowed just one goal in five playoff wins this year.

Head Coach Robert Pattenaude was very proud of his Covenant squad. "We gave up that one early goal, but we played toe-to-toe with them," he said. "So proud of our guys. So proud of our season. We asked a lot of guys to switch positions and take on different roles this year."

After a 1-6-1 record to open the schedule, Covenant rolled to a 14-2-0 mark the rest of the way. A season that began with a 7-0 loss to Grapevine ended with a 3-2 revenge win over that same Grapevine squad in the regular season finale.

The slow start to the season was attributed to having lost four of six first-team TAPPS Division III all-state selections from a year ago to graduation (HSTE also placed six first-teamers on that 14-man squad, but returned five of those this season). Also, Covenant had to await the arrival of five players from its playoff football team's season to end. Two of those players -- senior Midfielder Blake Brawner and the aforementioned Scott -- were the goal scorers in its 2-1 semifinal victory over Dallas Cristo Rey, which Coach Pattenaude characterized as "a very tough match for us".

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"We knew coming into the season, with the graduation losses, guys still playing on the football team, and having a big freshman class, that the early part of the season would be challenging," said Pattenaude. There are seven freshmen on this year's squad. "But once we got rolling, we made a good run," he added.

All the way to the state title game. In addition to the semifinal victory over Dallas Cristo Rey, Covenant ousted Flower Mound Coram Deo 6-1 in a quarterfinal matchup, which was preceded by a 13-1 rout of Austin Veritas in the Area round.

— Mike Waters

Fort Worth Nolan — Girls

WACO — Reaching the TAPPS girls state soccer championship match has not been the issue for Fort Worth Nolan. Over the last 29 seasons, the Lady Vikings have made it to the final 18 times.

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But the end result in all 18 appearances has been a runner-up trophy.

Nolan was turned away emphatically by Houston St. Agnes Academy 6-0 in the Division I title match Friday evening at Waco ISD Stadium.

If things were not distressing enough when St. Agnes (22-1) opened a 4-0 lead at halftime, Nolan’s intermission plans of making a game of it were wrecked in the first 23 seconds of the second half when conceding a fifth goal.

Nolan (25-5-4) had only two days of recovery time after taking out 26-time state champion Ursuline 3-2 in the semifinals on Wednesday.

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“Bottom line, we ran out of gas,’’ said Nolan coach Jay Fitzgerald. “I really thought we were prepared. But when you beat somebody you haven’t beaten before, what do you do now? We didn’t make a lot of mistakes this season, but we’ll learn from it. And St. Agnes is a really good team.’’

The goals came from all angles for St. Agnes. Freshman Jaide-Simone Prejean, positioned near the right post, scored twice in the first half. Those goals came after sophomore Kenna Sanders had opened the scoring by pouncing on a deflected pass and easing a shot past Nolan’s onrushing keeper.

The lead grew to 4-0 in the 33rd minute of the first half on Leah Klenke’s tap-in of blocked shot near goal.

Klenke’s second goal, a blast from close range, upped the count to 6-0. It followed Lauren Gerczik’s bolt coming out of halftime.

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Nolan’s best scoring chance came in the 72nd minute when leading scorer Laci Earixson and Isabella Tankersley had low, hard shots turned away by the St. Agnes keeper. Earixson hit the crossbar from close range in the final seconds.

“I feel bad for our players because we had a great season and I hate to see it end like that,’’ Fitzgerald said.

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