While the Dripping Springs Tigers led for a majority of Friday’s match at Tiger Stadium, they were unable to seal the victory as a late Boerne Champion Charger goal forced a 2-2 tie.

“The kids played the way we wanted them to play, we just kind of got unlucky at the end.” said Dripping Springs head soccer coach Josh Hill.

Tigers sophomore forward Max Gonzales got Dripping Springs (11-0-2, 2-0-2) on the board within the first minute of the game with a goal from a corner set piece. For Gonzales, it was his 19th goal on the season and set the tone for the rest of the game.

“We have five or six different corner kicks that we do,” Hill said of Gonzales’ goal. “That’s one of the ones where sometimes we try and do kind of a dummy play where we run a player off the ball and then the next guy came, and it was just a good pass and a good finish.”

After a Boerne Champion goal mid-way through the first half to tie the score, Dripping Springs sophomore midfielder Desidorio De La Cruz put the Tigers back in the lead with a goal from within the 18-yard box.

De La Cruz’s shot curved around the goal keeper to the top right corner of the net. Dripping Springs held a 2-1 halftime lead.

“I think overall we kind of executed our game plan,” said Hill. “We knew they would be physical. They have a kid up front who’s pretty good; we let him get free in the first half and he created a goal. But, other than that, defensively we played pretty well.”

Missed opportunities was the story of the second half for Dripping Springs, as they constantly got the ball in position, but simply couldn’t finish. Boerne Champion capitalized late in the game when they got a ball past the Tiger midfield and by defenders to sneak a goal in the last two minutes.

“We created a lot of chances, especially in the first half,” Hill said. “Not being able to put a couple more of those away kept the game close, and that’s what happens in soccer, stuff like that happens.”

Dripping Springs hosts Medina Valley for a district match Friday at 6:45 p.m.