Posted: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:06 AM - 10,371 Readers

By: Randy Stevens

The San Marcos Rattlers knew what to expect going into Monday night’s Class 4A Area playoff game against Lake Travis.

After all, the Cavaliers were a team that went four rounds deep into the playoffs last year and started this season ranked fourth in the region. Their 9-2-2 record was another sign of the significant challenge the Rattlers faced on their home field.

Nonetheless, the Rattlers still seemed somewhat astounded, especially with Lake Travis’ speed and quickness, as the Cavs scored two goals in the first three minutes of the game and never looked back en route to 6-1 win in front of an loud and enthusiastic crowd at the SMHS soccer field.

The Rattlers, who were making their first postseason appearance in 16 years, fell behind quickly when Lake Travis’ Kramer Fyfe found himself one-one-one with SMHS Aaron Nunez after a nice pass then booted the ball into the top left corner less than 30 seconds into the game.

The Rattlers found themselves down 2-0 about two minutes later when Stephen Pyle drove in another open pass past Nunez.

“I think we underestimated their speed and quickness,” SMHS head boys’ soccer coach Justin Soza said. “It happened so quickly, before we could blink our eyes they scored twice. That’s always tough to come back from.”

San Marcos fell behind 3-0 when Dylan Manos dribbled the ball past the SMHS defense and scored from about 10 yards out. Fyfe scored in similar fashion with 10 minutes left in the half to give Lake Travis a 4-0 lead at intermission.

Fyfe posted a hattrick when he opened the second half with hard-kicked shot up into the top left corner of the goal, just out of the reach of Nunez. Pyle scored his second goal of the game with close to 25 minutes remaining to give Lake Travis a 6-0 lead.

The Rattlers were able to avoid the shutout with 4:42 remaining in the contest when David Fernandez drove the ball into the net on a free kick.

Despite the loss, Soza said he was pleased with his team’s determined effort.

“These guys played their butts off,” Soza said. “ They know only one way to play, and that’s hard.”

San Marcos had its season end with a 7-9-3 record, while Lake Travis improved to 10-2-2.

“We’ll take the good over the bad. It was a phenomenal year. We had great leadership from our seniors, without those guys, we wouldn’t have made it as far as we did,” Soza said. “We started the winning tradition again. The team hasn’t been back-to-back in the playoffs in a long time, and I think this team has set the foundation of a team that can continued to get into the playoffs.”

*  Story Contributed by: Randy Stevens