ABILENE When the match mattered most, the Permian girls soccer team maintained its composure to come away with a 2-1 victory against Keller Timber Creek in a Class 6A area round playoff match Tuesday at Shotwell Stadium..
The Lady Panthers kept up their attacking speed in overtime to advance to the regional quarterfinal round, where they’ll play Southlake Carroll, a 3-1 winner against Wolfforth Frenship Tuesday.
Details of that contest are still being finalized.
“We’ve got the legs to play,” Permian coach Chad Peterson said. “It’s the first time we’ve had to go an extra session like that, so it’s good to see that our fitness has paid off.”
Keller Timber Creek showed early that it wasn’t afraid to start its attacking opportunities from its own half of the field.
The Lady Falcons dictated the pace of the match with rhythm passing, leading them to find open spaces in Permian’s defensive alignment.
They made that count in the first eight minutes when a cross from the right wing resulted in a hand ball called inside the Permian 18-yard box.
The referee awarded a penalty kick, which was converted by Bella Alfaro to give the Lady Falcons the lead.
After getting a feel for the opponent’s passing, the Lady Panthers started to look for the tie with aggressive pushes forward.
Permian’s first shot came about three minutes after conceding the goal, with a strike from Nyxalee Munoz rolling wide of the left post.
She tied things up with 14 minutes left in the half, sending in an off-balance, left-footed shot after gaining control of a long pass.
Peterson said the Lady Falcons gave his team a strong challenge by showing how aggressive their game plan was through the first half.
“It’s surprising to me that is a fourth-place team out of its district, let alone a team that had to play in to be the fourth-place team,” he said. “That’s credit to them and their district on how tough it is.”
Second-half momentum proved to favor the Lady Panthers, as they created consistently dangerous looks in hopes of jumping ahead.
A shot from Mya Gonzales that bounced off the crossbar in the first three minutes was Permian’s first warning sign of the period.
Despite breaking through the Keller Timber Creek back line multiple times, the Lady Panthers couldn’t break the deadlock before regulation ended.
Although overtime was needed to decide a winner, Permian didn’t look fazed by the extended playing time as the team kept its energy up to keep creating scoring chances.
Gonzales was constant spark for the Lady Panthers, taking advantage of a through ball pass from Belen Guerrero to put Permian up 2-1 with seven minutes left in the first overtime period.
That score was all Permian needed to keep its season going another week.
Peterson said he emphasized to his team how important it was to jump out of the gates with energy to take control of the pace early.
The Lady Panthers (14-5-3 overall) didn’t get that necessary boost until late in the first half, something that will need to be fixed sooner rather than later.
“You’re deep in the playoffs now, you can’t wait 20 minutes to go,” Peterson said. “Sooner or later, we’ll run into that team that, they’re going to decide to punish us for it.
“For right now, we’re still dancing so we’ll take it.”
>> Follow Chris Amaya on Twitter at @OA_CAmaya
