BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
BEAUREGARD — A historic season for Beauregard High School’s soccer program ended in Indian Springs after the girls and boys both dropped games to the Indian Springs School in the first round of the 5A playoffs on April 24.
After making the playoffs for the third time, the Lady Hornets fell 10-0 to the No. 3 Lady Springs, and the Hornets lost 4-0 to the No. 4 Springs in their first-ever playoff game.
The Lady Hornets finish their season with a 4-16-1 record, while the Hornets conclude their campaign sitting at 9-11-1.
It was the first time ever that both Beauregard teams made the playoffs in the same season, and the first time the girls’ team participated in postseason play in consecutive seasons.
Girls game
After losing to Indian Springs 10-0 in the first round last year, the Lady Hornets sought revenge and to prove themselves.
Despite falling by the same exact scoreline a year later, the progress made since then has been evident according to Beauregard head girls and boys coach Kelly Tubbs.
“Thirteen girls is kind of hard to play with, but they show up every day,” Tubbs said. “Sometimes they play shy and timid, and sometimes it takes a leader in the back to really get them motivated. But we’ve got a lot of growth in this program, and we’re going to keep moving it in the right direction. I’ll give them a couple of days off, and we’ll start right back at it next week.”
The Lady Hornets found themselves overwhelmed early in the game after conceding six goals to the Lady Springs in the opening 12 minutes.
After regaining their composure, Beauregard managed to more consistently win possession of the ball and keep Indian Springs out of the net for an extended period of time.
In the first half’s latter stages, the Lady Springs slowly reasserted control, scoring four more times — including their 10th goal with 22 seconds left before halftime — to end the game after the first half.
Boys game
Facing their first-ever minutes in the postseason, the Hornets gave the Springs everything they wanted during the game’s first 60 minutes.
In the end, a brief but decisive run of good form from an experienced Indian Springs squad doomed Beauregard.
With the pressure piling on, the Hornets just couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole and now must return to the drawing board — both literally and figuratively — to build on their momentum.
“We were a little inexperienced and we’ve got some newcomers who’ve tried to mesh in,” Tubbs said. “It’s a metaphor I call quicksand. It’s when something goes wrong and you try to grind, and then the more you struggle, the more you go down. [Indian Springs] got those two quick goals on us in the blink of an eye, and it’s like, ‘Alright, settle back down.’ And then we played really well toward the end.”
Following a herculean effort to keep Indian Springs out of the net for almost the entirety of the first half, Beauregard finally conceded with 2:33 left before halftime.
Down 1-0 coming out of halftime, the Hornets continued soaking up pressure while searching for the perfect opportunity to counterattack.
However, following more competitive play to open the second half, the dam opened up for the Springs in the final 20 minutes.
In a span of less than four minutes, Indian Springs scored three goals — two from open play and a penalty — to take a commanding 4-0 lead.
Having gone down to 10 men following the penalty, Beauregard somehow found themselves with several quality scoring chances, but were unable to convert them into goals.
