FORNEY — They split their regular season meetings so Grace Community and Bullard Brook Hill made sure they met one more time.

Both the Cougars and Guard won TAPPS Division II regional playoff games on Saturday at City Bank Stadium to advance to the state semifinals. That game is to be determined at a neutral site, likely in Tyler on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The winner advances to the state championship game Saturday against either Houston The Village School or San Antonio TMI at 3 p.m. from Waco ISD Stadium.

Grace defeated TAPPS D-II District 2 foe Dallas Christian 5-4 in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in regulation. Brook Hill’s Victor Loolo scored with four minutes left to send the Guard past Colleyville Covenant Christian 1-0.

In their previous meetings, Brook Hill won 2-1 in Bullard and Grace won 1-0 in Tyler. The Guard finished first in District 2 while the Cougars took second.

 

Grace 1, Dallas Christian 1 (5-4 PKs)

The Cougars (14-2) fell behind 1-0 early when Chargers forward Garrett Chandler sent in a corner kick that was rifled into the back of the net by teammate Cameron Paul.

Grace put a number of shots on goal in the second half before breaking through when junior Carter Schultz headed the ball into the box where Kyle Eli headed it over the onrushing DC goalie to equalize at 1-1.

After two scoreless overtime periods the teams went to penalties, where the Cougars made all five of their kicks and Grace senior Gerald Gray made one stop to secure the victory.

Converting from the spot for the Cougars were Carter Lackey, Jacob Williams, Christian Hooper, Derrick Wong and Ty Hunter.

 

Brook Hill 1, Colleyville Covenant 0

The Guard gained a measure of revenge for their only loss of last season with a narrow victory over the Cougars.

Michael Omini finished a good spell of midfield play with a through ball to Loolo who went in one-on-one with the Covenant goalie to score the only goal of the game with four minutes left.

“It was kind of relief,” Guard coach David Collins said. “We had been knocking on the door the whole game and finally got the goal. We didn’t play our best tonight but we played really hard. We were rewarded in the end.”

Last year the Cougars beat the Guard 5-0 in the Division III state semifinals. This time around goalie Jace Kuechle made six saves to preserve the clean sheet, including a couple good stops when Brook Hill was on its heels for a spell in the second half.

Collins also noted the play of Thasca Ortega in midfield.