Westgate uses three first-half goals to beat NISH

Published 12:00 am Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Westgate girls soccer team has been on a roll this year, with 14 wins in 19 games heading into Friday’s contest, the Lady Tigers have announced that they are a team to be reckoned with this season.

Even after a disappointing loss to St. Thomas More Tuesday, their first district loss of the season, Coach Fafadji Acouetey told the girls to put it behind them and concentrate on the next game, which happened to be Friday night in the first of two annual district games with cross-town rival New Iberia Senior High.

Behind three first half goals from Kelley Clancey, Mallory Broussard, Morgan Bulliard, Westgate successfully put the earlier loss behind them and shut out their long-time rivals 4-0 to improve to 3-1 in district and in second place behind long-time state power STM after the first round of district play. The Lady Tigers are now 15-4-1 overall

“Like I said last year, we’re working hard at it and this year my kids have come out and are playing,” said Acouetey. “I told them to stay calm and score goals.

“They played hard tonight.”

Acouetey wasn’t even concerned about the mood his team would be in at the start of Friday’s game, he thought the team would be able to put the loss to St. Thomas More behind them and concentrate on their arch-rival.

“My girls are ready each time there is a new game to play,” said Acouetey. “The past is the past and there is a new game to play.

“So they put everything behind them and go for it.”

It didn’t take Westgate long to put the earlier loss behind them as Clancey scored the first goal about 10 minutes into the game.

That was quickly followed by goals from Broussard and Bulliard as the Lady Tigers took the 3-0 halftime lead.

“You come out looking a little flat on the back and they pop some off real quick,” said NISH coach Ryan Fontenot. “It’s been a problem of ours this year. The other teams have been scoring in spurts.”

Fontenot added that his team seems to have mental breakdowns for small periods in games, but those breakdowns are when the opposition seems to score the majority of their goals.

Westgate added another score in the second half from Alex Corne for the final margin.

“This was a good win don’t get me wrong,” said Acouetey. “But my girls are going to put it behind them and concentrate on the next game.

“We’ll celebrate tonight (Friday) and get to work on the next game.”

For Fontenot is was another small step with a team that’s mostly composed on freshmen and sophomores.

“It was just a couple of minutes of bad play but it lead to a 4-0 loss,” said Fontenot. “I thought that we played our best offensive game of the season in which we moved the ball well and had very fast play.

“It just didn’t materialize into goals tonight. We’re just waiting on that one break.”

Westgate travels to Carencro Tuesday while New Iberia Senior High plays host to St. Thomas More.