Girls' soccer has become the latest West Plains program to excel in first year
CANYON — In its first year of existence, West Plains High School has established a track record of success in the field of athletics.
The volleyball team went 33-9 in the regular season and advanced to the regional quarterfinals. The football team went 6-4 in the regular season and made it to the second round of the playoffs. The boys' basketball team sits at 17-9 as of press time and in third place in a hyper competitive district.
There are still a whole lot of games left to play and that's a lot of success to live up to, but in the early going, the girls' soccer team may just be the best of all those new programs.
The Lady Wolves are 11-1 overall with their lone loss coming against Class 5A Lubbock Cooper by a score of 1-0. Other than that, all they've done is win and they've done so convincingly.
The scores tell the story: 7-1 against Snyder, 12-1 and 13-0 against Plainview and 9-0 against EP Riverside. And most recent, West Plains added a 13-0 win over Pampa Tuesday night at Happy State Bank Stadium. Aside from the fact that keeper Bella Hawley was the loneliest gal in the stadium all night, things couldn't have gone much better for the Lady Wolves.
"We're here, and we're doing the dang thing," West Plains coach Amberlee Gerald said after the Pampa win Monday. "We're here to stay."
The offense has been explosive from the get-go. Sydney Lanigan was Randall's leading scorer last year with 15 goals. In 12 matches this year, she has 20. As impressive as that is, what may be more remarkable is that she's not the only one putting the ball in the back of the net for the Lady Wolves.
Melanie Lujan has 15 goals, MacKenzie Hickman has eight and Makayla Gomez has seven. There were 13 goals scored against the Lady Harvesters and 10 players scored them. Yes, Lanigan had the hat trick, but her teammates have shown outstanding ability to score as well.
That is what's made the Lady Wolves' offense so dangerous.
"We have so much good talent that we can rely on," Lanigan said. "Everyone can score here."
Scoring in bunches can always help win matches, but what's made West Plains so dominant is the combination of prolific offense and physical defense.
Cali Bessent scored a goal and had three assists against Pampa, but it's her play at center back that's earned her a scholarship to CSU-Pueblo. Bessent's superb defense and Hawley's defense have resulted in seven shutouts for the Lady Wolves as they've only allowed three goals all season.
"We have a great defense," Bessent said. "We have good subs that can come in and our midfielders and forwards all contribute to us getting shutouts."
The Pampa game was the first of 12 district matches and West Plains has another non-district match to close the season before the playoffs. The postseason kicks off in late March. There is still a long, long way to go the rest of the season, and anything can happen.
With that being said, the Lady Wolves already look like another outstanding West Plains program.
It's possible, too, that they could be much more than that.
"We shoot for higher than the ceiling," Gerald said. "We shoot for the stars. We're very confident that we're going to be around and we're going to be a name in the state of Texas for a while."
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Girls soccer the latest West Plains athletic program to excel in first year
