JUSTIN — Defending state champion Southlake Carroll advanced on penalty kicks past Flower Mound Marcus in a Class 5A bi-district game matched a pair of traditional powers.
On the sixth penalty kick, Carroll junior Tommy Price stutter-stepped past the goalie to gently push in a shot off the outside of his his push to set off a mad dogpile for Carroll, whose sophomore goalie Turner Roberts had two blocks, forced three misses and gave up one goal in the shootout.
“It’s lots of pressure on young players in a shootout,” Carroll coach Greg Oglesby said. “We have our list and we practice it but you never know what’s going to happen. We were just glad we got past a program like Marcus.”
Carroll and Marcus hold three of the last five 5A state titles, and Carroll needed a nifty 25-yard goal by Juan Carlos Flores off free kick set up by a quick-passing cross-over.
In overtime, Marcus goalie Collin Hall made a pair of stellar saves to force penalty kicks.
Carroll, which relied heavily on a suffocating defense to go undefeated in last year’s state title run, generated little offense other than it’s regulation score.
ON THE WEB: Tuesday's severe weather in the Dallas area forced many high school soccer, baseball and softball games to be postponed until Wednesday. For a look at the revised schedules, go to SportsDayHS.com.