Lady Rattlers drop tournament opener against Victoria East

Of the four goals San Marcos has allowed this season, all of them have come off set pieces. 

Victoria East took advantage of two set pieces Thursday morning to defeat the Lady Rattlers, 2-0, at the Ragin’ Rattler tournament inside San Marcos Toyota Rattler Stadium. 

“I knew going in this was going to be a fast paced game, they were going to maintain possession and move the ball around,” head coach Jason Carnley said. “We had a darn good practice (Wednesday) and we worked on the exact same thing that we were going to be playing against. It was just unlucky. Two goals off corners. We’ve got to figure out how to stop that. But I think we played well, moved the ball around, just we led them too far or not enough trying get the ball right where we needed to. I think we were trying to do perfect passes instead of playing to each other.” 

Victoria East controlled possession throughout the first half but San Marcos’ defense kept the Titans from scoring. The Lady Rattlers had a couple of opportunities at goal but they couldn’t find the back of the net. 

Victoria East broke through early in the second half off a corner kick, which put San Marcos in a 1-0 hole. The Titans extended their lead off another corner kick to secure a 2-0 victory. 

Despite giving up two goals, Carnley felt like his defense played well. 

“The four goals that have been scored on have all been on set pieces so that says that our defense is playing well together, which is good,” Carnley said. “I’ve been saying we’ve been moving people around, so it’s not our starting line right now. So, that’s something positive in my head, knowing, hey if we can hold them from shooting our keepers have played well, they’ve played great. It’s just small things.” 

Although the Lady Rattlers lost, the result provides a learning moment for them. 

“No coach likes to lose but sometimes I like to to see how we’re going act in the next one,” Carnley said. “So, I mean, we played good in the (Waller) tournament, we played some tough teams. We’re coming home against four tough teams, I mean, I hate to lose, especially with goals like that … But it’s good to lose to see how we’re going to battle back.”