Tyler Legacy Soccer Logo.jpg

GRAND SALINE — Mesquite Horn grabbed a 4-1 lead and held off a late Tyler Legacy rally for a 4-3 decision in the second round of the Class 6A Division 2 soccer playoffs Tuesday night on Carter Elliott Field at Indian Memorial Stadium.

“It’s one of those things that I think if we make it out of the last 10 minutes of the first half, I think we win it,” Tyler Legacy head boys soccer coach Marty Germany said. “We were missing some pieces, and that hurt us tonight. But you’ve got to play with what you’ve got. And that’s why we play the game to see who is going to win and see who is going to lose. Unfortunately, we came out on the short end of that today.”

Legacy led 1-0 late in the first half, but Horn scored three goals in less than nine minutes of game time to go up 3-1.

The Jaguars added another goal with 10:51 to play on a shot by Efrain Couoh to build a 4-1 cushion.

The Red Raiders didn’t go away, though. Braer LeBlanc scored with 4:51 remaining on an assist by Fin Phillips following a Carson Spillman throw-in to cut the score to 4-2.

The Red Raiders had a chance with 1:36 on the clock, but Horn was able to make the save.

With 25.9 seconds to play, a double header ended in a goal as Phillips headed it to Erick Mendez, who put the ball into to net to cut the score to 4-3. Horn was able to run out the remainder of the clock to advance to the Class 6A Division 2 Region II semifinals.

“They’ve battled,” Germany said. “When you’re still playing in the shadows of that group a couple of years ago, the bar has been pushed very high. We’ve got four district titles in the last five years, and the one we didn’t get, we were two points away, and we had five ACL tears last year (still advancing to the regional semifinals). They’ve created a program. They’ve put in the work. They’ve created the expectations. And right now, that’s why they’re hurting. It’s not a game that they went oh we got to this point. They were expecting to go further.”

While Horn was creating chances, goalkeeper David Ray and the Legacy defense were thwarting them away early.

Just more than 15 minutes into the contest, it looked like Horn might score, but Phillips made the defensive play to keep the game scoreless.

After the midway point of the first half, the Red Raiders flipped the field, and Mendez found Juan Felix, who put the ball into the net to give Legacy a 1-0 lead with 19:58 on the clock.

Horn tied the game on a Miguel Duran goal on an assist by Jonathan Pineda with 5:50 on the clock. Then with 3:17 left in the first half, Marco Oviedo scored to give the Jaguars a 2-1 halftime lead.

Duran scored his second goal of the game less than three minutes into the second half to push the score to 3-1.

The Red Raiders finished the season with a 14-2-4 record. Horn (12-6-5) advances to face Grand Oaks.