Season comes to an end
Fighting Farmer soccer team falls short of making regional finals
Seniors Brandon Barrows and Fabian Gutierrez reflect on the game loss against Sam Houston on Friday, April 7.
In the regional semi finals on April 7, the boys’ Fighting Farmer soccer team fell to Arlington Sam Houston 3-2 in overtime. The Farmers trailed 1-0 at half, and in a span of 15 minutes the game was tied 2-2 in the second half. Later in the first half of overtime Sam Houston broke the deadlock with a final score of 3-2.
The team completed the regular season with a winning record and finished third place in district 5-6A. This year was the first in 19 years that the boys’ team made it to playoffs.
Head coach Brandon McCallum is proud of the way the season played out. All of the hard work put in during the season paid off at the end.
“It went way beyond than just making the playoffs,” McCallum said. “We went all the way to the fourth round which is good. As a team we were very unified. When you get a group of guys who play for each other you can do great things.”
The team had many players receive awards for their outstanding performances throughout the season. The district MVP award went to senior midfielder Peter Hmung, while senior defender Jonatan Lara received district defensive player of the year.
“This award means a lot to me,” Hmung said. “Without the team, I wouldn’t have won it. I dedicate my success to the coaching staff and my teammates.”
Players give credit to their coach for how well he focused on and supported the team. Discipline and determination was part of the success of the team this year.
“[Coach McCallum] feels proud of us, plus we haven’t made playoffs in a while so that should make him happy,” senior defender Abraham Escamilla said. “We did all of this for him. We dedicate our success to the boss.”
Most of the of the boys have been playing together since freshman and sophomore year, so they had a tight bond with each other and remained united as family. Every team activity was done together as one unit.
“Everyone knows each other’s styles, weaknesses and strengths,” senior goalie Angel Santana said. “So if someone in the game [was] feeling weak, we helped each other out and balanced out the chemistry in the team.”
