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Best of the Best: A look back at District 8-5A boys soccer
BY Kevin Hageland, Justin Thomas and Matt Welch, Staff Writers
The past two years were a special time for the athletics wing of the Plano, Allen and Lewisville ISDs.
In joining forces under the District 8-5A umbrella, Plano East, Plano Senior, Plano West, Allen, Flower Mound, Flower Mound Marcus, Lewisville and Hebron combined for 28 UIL State Championships, many more state tournament or state meet appearances, a laundry list of all-state selections and an environment as competitive as any in the state.
As a way of paying homage to the past two years of district play, The PSC is running a retrospective series highlighting five of the best games played within 8-5A for football, volleyball, boys basketball, girls basketball, girls soccer, boys soccer, baseball and softball.
"There wasn't anybody on a given night who you just felt you could walk in and get a win over," said Bob Weir, former Plano head coach. "You had to play a good, sound game and it made things very competitive.
"Because of this district, if you made the playoffs it felt like the same thing there."
In a district where national rankings were the norm, draws and high stakes as well as stellar individual and team performances were on display nearly every night.
Here's a look back on the highlights (in chronological order) of the past two years.
Hebron defeats Plano Senior, 4-1
March 1, 2011
Early in the season, Plano handed Hebron its first district loss and did so in dominating 5-1 fashion.
The sting of that defeat stuck with the Hawks throughout 8-5A and Hebron had vengeance on its mind when the clubs again squared off with first place in district on the line as the second round of competition began.
This time it was Hebron that had its way as Jose Paz netted a hat trick to propel the Hawks to a 4-1 victory.
"Losing 5-1 stung a bit and we wanted to come out and show we were better than that," said Monte Pace, Hebron head coach.
It took 43 minutes for the Hawks to get on the board, but when Paz evened the contest at 1-1, Hebron never looked back. Paz tacked on his second score just four minutes after the first to put the Hawks in front. Hebron supplied another scoring outburst late in the second half to put the game away with Chris Haberer doubling the lead to 3-1 before Paz posted the final score three minutes later.
"Jose is a great player," Pace said. "He's definitely an offensive force; he scored a lot of goals, worked hard and when he had games like that, it just ignited the team.
"He put us on his back (in this game)."
Plano Senior defeats Flower Mound Marcus, 5-2
March 8, 2011
In what was a defensively-savvy district for much of 2011, the Wildcats and Marauders bucked that trend emphatically in this contest.
The two teams rattled off goals with machine gun-like repetition, pillaging each other's defense for five total goals over a 10-minute span.
"Anytime we've played Marcus in the past, one or two goals was all you needed," Weir said. "A game like that was definitely in the minority when you look at how good Marcus is."
Marcus struck first behind a 25-yard strike from Andre Reyes in the sixth minute before Plano quickly responded with a Tony Santibanez score set up by Brandon Aubrey, who would account for a goal of his own 50 seconds later. Not be outdone, Marcus' Michael Castaldo knotted the count again at 2-2 with a goal in the 13th minute and a mere three minutes later, Santibanez reclaimed the lead for the Wildcats with a 30-yard dart that clanged in off the bottom half of the crossbar.
Santibanez completed the hat trick in 58th minute to extend the Wildcats' cushion as the Marauders ran out of ammunition after a wild opening series.
"I remember seeing a couple of Tony's shots from that game and they were just lasers," Weir said. "That game really boosted his confidence and helped him get to the level where he's at."
Plano Senior defeats Plano East, 8-2
March 15, 2011
During the 2011 season, Plano scored 42 goals in district and compiled at least three goals eight times.
East wound up on the receiving end of the most lopsided drubbing of them all.
"There are some nights when you're just on and your opponent may not be having its best game," Weir said. "Whenever you score that many goals, you probably have a pretty good offense, but it also means things were just clicking for you that night."
Puzzling as it may sound, the Panthers maintained a 2-1 lead 15 minutes into the match courtesy of goals by Casey Collins and Omar Jaroun after the Wildcats got on the board first behind a Patrick O'Day score.
Seven more goals found the back of the net over the next 65 minutes, all triggered by the Plano attack.
Two goals were netted by Joey Tomeny, with additional scores chipped in by Santibanez, Brandon Aubrey, Galen Bahadoorsingh, Garrett Rogers and Travis White as Plano posted eight goals for the first time since an 8-0 shutout of West Mesquite on Jan. 26, 2007.
"A lot of times when you get into a situation like that," Weir said, "you wish you could have taken a few of those goals and spread them throughout the year for some of our games that were a bit closer."
Flower Mound ties Flower Mound Marcus, 0-0
February 7, 2012
Entering 2012, it had been six seasons since Flower Mound was last ahead of Marcus in a soccer match when the clock read 0:00 at the end of regulation.
But this year, the Jaguars gave Marcus all it could handle, including a win over the Marauders during non-district play, 3-1, to claim first at the Marcus Cup in late January.
"It's obviously a big rivalry for us," said David Doyle, Flower Mound head coach. "But to be honest, they had pretty much dominated it for the past few years. It had been a while since we had beaten them, and I think we really gained confidence from beating them in the tournament."
The Jaguars carried that momentum into 8-5A, when Flower Mound and Marcus squared off in the second district game of the season.
This time, however, there would be no victor as the clubs played to a scoreless draw.
"I think Marcus had a little revenge on their mind after we had beaten them in the tournament," Doyle said. "The result was very good end-to-end soccer. Both teams had shots tipped off the post and the goalies made some big saves to keep the match tied."
The tight contest propelled Marcus and Flower Mound through district, with the Jaguars securing at least a draw in their ensuing six matches before coming up short in their third meeting of the year against Marcus, 1-0.
The Marauders, meanwhile, overcame a youthful roster to qualify for the playoffs for the 21st consecutive season.
Plano Senior defeats Plano West, 3-0
Hebron defeats Flower Mound Marcus, 3-0
Allen ties Flower Mound, 0-0
March 27, 2012
The final day of the season was like the last day of World Cup group play.
Three teams (Plano, Allen and Marcus) were tied for first place in the district, five teams were jockeying for four playoff spots and there was a chance at a four-way tie for first by the end of the night.
"We knew what we had to do to give us the opportunity to be district champion," Weir said, "but by winning, we didn't know whether or not it would actually be enough."
It was as Hebron and Allen failed to win.
Plano beat West, 3-0, will all three goals triggered behind the leg of Ramon Gallegos, who recorded his hat trick in 12 minutes off assists from Tomeny and Santibanez.
"We knew before the game that we needed to win this one to take district," Gallegos said after the match. "Coach Weir wanted it really bad, especially since it's his last year, so we did it for ourselves and for him."
The win meant Plano had at least a share of first, but Allen could still lay claim too.
The problem for the Eagles was they went up against a Flower Mound team that needed a win to guarantee a playoff spot. Neither squad would get the all-important two points as Flower Mound keeper Michael Martin and Allen netminder Christopher Hendricks kept the slates clean.
The Jaguars' inability to win had numerous fans in the stands checking their phones to get updates on the Marcus-Hebron game.
It was all Hebron nearby as goals from Paz (2) and Spencer Mahurt gave the Hawks a 3-0 victory over the Marauders. That result made its way to the Flower Mound sideline prior to the end of their scoreless draw and forced the Jaguars coaching staff to start crunching numbers.
"OK, that's for a three-way tie, so we don't need that," Doyle said as he moved on to the next section of the paper after the game. "Yeah, here we go, last playoff spot. We are all tied here, so ... yup, tiebreaker.
"Tiebreaker," his assistants responded.
The end result of the chaos: a district title for Plano, No. 2 seed for Allen, No. 3 seed for Marcus and play-in game between Hebron and Flower Mound for the final postseason slot with the Hawks coming out victorious three days later.
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