The Lady Rattlers (5-1-4) extended their undefeated streak to nine matches Friday night, tying with Austin Reagan (3-3-1) 0-0 inside the San Marcos Toyota Rattler Stadium.
“It's pretty awesome,” head coach Jason Carnley said. “I mean, we've only lost one game, we're on a streak, we're doing well — we're not playing as well as we need to. So I'd say we're doing something positive. That's a feat I don't think we ever had, nine-straight games of not a loss. But that's something we gotta build on and I think the district is going to be tougher than this. But keep on fighting, we're gonna be fine.”
San Marcos saw a handful of opportunities at the goal. The team did set up strong counter attacks, landing long through passes that typically left one of their forwards one-on-one with the Lady Raiders’ goalkeeper.
But the team struggled to finish off its chances, failing to find the back of the net.
“We definitely were looking for some through balls tonight,” Carnley said. “We found those, they just trapped us quickly and we weren't able to finish. We had some changes, you've got to finish those opportunities and hopefully next time it happens we'll get one on.”
The hosts also put up a strong defensive performance, stifling Reagan at every opportunity.
Carnley described the match as “ugly.” He wanted to see his team do a better job of settling the ball down. But the Lady Rattlers are dealing with a some roster turnover, and Carnley knows it’ll take some time to adjust.
“We had some changes, some people were not in the lineup, based on injuries and grades, so a lot of things have changed,” Carnley said. “It just wasn't our game tonight.”
San Marcos plays in its final non-district game on Monday, hosting Incarnate Word (1-4-3) at 6:45 p.m.
“I'm hoping that we can just play a little passing around, monkey in the middle kind of thing,” Carnley said. “You know, it's a game of checkers, move the ball around and just work as a team. So I'm hoping to get the new people in and new people out, sort of figure out what we're kind of made of. And after that, we're playing district. It's on.”
