Tale of two halves costs San Marcos against Austin
San Marcos thought it’d seen the last of the woes of winter weather after what Texas deemed the “Snowpocalypse” just two weeks ago. On a night that consisted of 25-mile-per-hour winds and sub-50 degree weather, the toughness of district play carried on.
San Marcos (3-11, 0-10 district) fell 3-1 to Austin High (4-8-2, 2-3-1) on Monday night in San Marcos Toyota Rattler stadium. Senior forward Melvin Molina scored the lone goal for the Rattlers, and was just off on three other attempts throughout the night.
Head coach Lisa Mazur said she felt like in “the first half, we didn’t put them away,” and that “it’s been the story of our life that we just cannot put the ball in the back of the net in the first half. In the last four games that’s what’s happened.”
Mazur’s words echoed true in Monday’s match. The first half and the second half of the match were completely different stories. San Marcos responded fast after Austin scored its first goal in the 26th minute, where Molina scored in the immediate possession afterward from the right hash in the 25th minute.
For the rest of the half, defensive play ensued with two saves from Rattler goalkeeper Chris Guerra, as well as shot attempts from the Rattlers that Mazur described as just “wide to the right or wide to the left.”
In the second half, Mazur felt like San Marcos didn’t “match (Austin’s) intensity,” and that “we lost the wind in our sail because we just couldn’t finish shots and so we got frustrated and, you know, you can’t get frustrated because you have to keep playing, but we just kind of lost that momentum or that drive to keep going.”
Austin capitalized off the Rattlers’ frustration and scored two goals in the 25th and 17th minutes of the second half. Mazur said she thought “when they got the second and the third (goals) we just lost our momentum, and it just kind of killed us right there.”
Looking forward to San Marcos’ upcoming schedule, Mazur wants her team to improve their tenacity.
“I think we’re retreating a lot more instead of attacking,” Mazur said. “We’re retreating and letting them come to us.”
Mazur felt like the team could clean up a few other areas as well going into Tuesday’s match.
“Stronger tackling, for sure. Just that second and third and fourth effort, kind of play,” Mazur said. “They were a little bit bigger than us, but I think we need to have a little bit more fight in us.”
The Rattlers defeated Austin on the road 4-3 on Tuesday, the team’s first district win of the season.
