Lady Indians set to host tourney

[KFDM COOP]

Lady Indians set to host tourney

HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER

By Tom Halliburton

The Port Arthur News

PORT NECHES -- These Port Neches-Groves Lady Indians might be the best little 1-3 high school girls soccer team in Texas.

But do not be deceived by PN-G's record.

First, PN-G is 1-0 in its all-important District 20-4A record following a 5-1 win at Silsbee on Tuesday night.

Second, the Lady Indians participated last weekend in a most competitive tournament at The Woodlands, losing by reasonably competitive scores to Cypress Creek (5-1), Richardson Berkner (4-3) and Austin Westlake (4-0).

Third, seventh-year head coach Aimee Bates is absent from school during January due to maternity leave.

Fourth, returning senior forward Marisa Elam has returned to health from a knee injury.

Fifth, returning senior midfielder Brittany Ansel is back this week after missing the weekend with upper respiratory congestion.

So the Lady Indians embarked upon this weekend's 16-team PN-G soccer tournament with a goal to keep improving under the direction of acting boss Crystal Werkheiser.

The 16-team tournament entries in the two-day event include PN-G and PN-G's B team, Kelly, Rosenberg Terry, Galveston Ball, Willis, Lumberton, Rosenberg Lamar Consolidated, Nederland, Richmond Foster, Clear Springs, Montgomery, Little Cypress-Mauriceville, Huntsville, Beaumont West Brook and Magnolia.

The teams will be divided into four four-team pools. Today's "pool" games will not be considered wins or losses because they will contain only 20-minute halves. Two full matches will follow on Saturday with four teams playing for the Indian Cup, four for the Warrior Cup, four for the Brave Cup and four for the Tomahawk Cup.

PN-G's assistant head coach Werkheiser has realized the benefit her group already has derived from The Woodlands tournament.

"Absolutely," she said. "We saw what we needed to work on and that's going to help us to prepare for district."

The same can apply to the Lady Indians' scrimmages. They received good-quality competition from Montgomery and West Brook in the pre-season. Plus, the subtraction of Elam and Ansel translated into the addition of freshmen forwards Corina Olua and Chloe Chaisson.

"Both of those freshmen did really well up front against Berkner," Werkheiser said. "Elam and Ansel are back now and they're looking good in practice. It's been tough but it's going to help us in our district... The good competition has helped us to gain a lot of insight and valuable experience."

Werkheiser already observed some benefit in the Lady Indians' 20-4A opener at Silsbee. Freshman midfielder Natalie Hager scored twice while freshman Olua, sophomore midfielder Alexis Harper and senior forward Elam added one goal apiece. Sophomore Tatum Crochet served as goalkeeper, limiting Silsbee to one goal.

[FriendswoodFan]

For those teams that will play vs. Richmond Foster, I am anxious to here what you think of their "tactics" on the field.  Hopefully, you will have refs who are not afraid to pull out their cards.  I've seen Foster play twice this year, and they had 3 cards in each game, and I heard about one game in which they had 5 cards.

[leftfoot]

Agree with the fw fan on foster.  Saw most of  three games they played in blue bell country.  The game with friendswood was a rough one and the foster coach high fives everyone who got a card. Seemed a little low rent to me.