GEORGETOWN — Flower Mound boys soccer coach David Doyle said sometimes his team responds best when it’s in a pressure situation, such as being behind. That team had a good response to such a scenario on Saturday, but it needed to be a little bit longer. Something in the range of 2½ minutes.
That was about how much time left before Flower Mound possibly had a chance to win by penalty kicks to win a state title, but this was not to be. Aidan Morrison converted a 30-yard free kick with 2:26 left in the second overtime for the winning goal as Katy Seven Lakes edged Flower Mound 2-1 in the UIL 6A Boys Soccer state final at Birkelbach Field. Morrison, a signee with Liberty University, was the 2023 Gatorade National Player of the Year.
In terms of shots, Flower Mound was out-played with a 10-4 disadvantage in shots on goal, 20-10 in overall shots, but the Jaguars stayed around and evened up the match at 1-all with 10:49 remaining in regulation when Landon DeLeeuw chipped in a Carter Simpson throw in from the left sideline. The throw-in was similar to what led to both Flower Mound goals in a 2-0 state semifinal win over Austin Vandegrift on Friday.
“We didn’t get a hold of the ball and keep it, and not until after we were 1-nil down before we would pass it,” Doyle said. “It’s kind of what we’ve done all year. Sometimes we wait until we’re behind or until they almost score before we decide we need to start keeping the ball and passing it. We did change the formation a little bit, and when we did we had success.”
Flower Mound (23-3-2) was denied its second state title, winning previously in 2019. Seven Lakes (25-1-2) repeated as state champions in its third consecutive state tournament appearance. Seven Lakes defeated Duncanville 2-0 in a state semifinal on Friday.
Flower Mound was able to stay in the match thanks to goalie Morgan English, who had eight saves. This included seven in the second half with a clutch arm save of an eight-yard shot by Noa Stasic in the 76th minute.
Stasic put Seven Lakes ahead with 31:21 remaining on a 21-yard rebound. Flower Mound’s first quality scoring chance was in the 46th minute, but Alex Tabbah’s 10-yard shot was too high.
Doyle said a difficult part of Saturday was saying goodbye to a large senior class. English, DeLeeuw and Tabbah are part of a group of 27 seniors on Flower Mound’s 30-player roster for the state tournament.
“Nothing I have to say is going to help right now. It probably won’t sink in until they wake up in the morning,” Doyle said. “They have come so far and done so much in four years at school. They’re going to be missed, but at least they have something to look back on that was a good journey.
“They just came up two minutes short of penalty kicks. You never know what might have happened then.”
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