Wylie East freshman Kendall Weston attempts to maintain possession against Plano East last Saturday at Wylie ISD Stadium. Photo by Oladipo Awowale / C&S Media
By David Wolman
Last week marked the official start of the 2026 season for high school soccer teams across the state, and it proved to be a successful few days of play on the pitch for Plano East, Sachse, Wylie and Wylie East.
The Wylie and Wylie East girls teams competed in the Andie Studley Memorial Showcase, held Thursday through Saturday at Wylie ISD Stadium.
The Lady Pirates had a strong showing, finishing 2-1 with wins over McKinney (2-0) and Rockwall (3-0) while outscoring their three opponents 6-3.
After posting a shutout of McKinney on Thursday, Wylie got off to a strong start Friday against Austin Vandergrift.
The Lady Pirates dominated play early. Junior Kennedy Butler opened the scoring in the 12th minute when her shot toward the net took a deflection off a Vandergrift defender and into the back of the net for an own goal and a 1-0 Wylie lead.
However, Vandergrift rallied with three unanswered goals and held on to defeat Wylie, 3-1.
Wylie returned to the field Saturday and had little trouble with Rockwall in a dominant 3-0 win. Butler, senior Taylor Kelly and junior Ronelyse Hartfield each scored a goal.
Wylie East also won two of the three matches it played at the Andie Studley Memorial Showcase.
To open tournament play, Wylie East faced Mesquite Horn in an area-round playoff rematch from a year ago, which the Lady Raiders won 8-0. And just like last season, Wylie East took care of business against Horn, earning a 5-0 win against the Lady Jaguars on Thursday.
Wylie East jumped out to a 3-0 halftime lead and never looked back.
Senior Nikki Coleman and junior Michela Adams each scored two goals in the victory. Freshman Kendall Weston added one goal and one assist.
Senior Addyson Lomax and junior Hailey Fincher combined for the shutout in goal.
Wylie East lost 2-0 to Rockwall-Heath on Friday but rebounded with a dominant 5-0 win over Plano East on Saturday afternoon.
On the boys’ side, Wylie went 1-0-2 at the Forney Tournament.
The Pirates and Sterling played to a 1-1 tie on Friday, with senior Bharath Alrukumar scoring Wylie’s goal. Later in the day, Wylie earned a 2-0 shutout of Forney behind goals from seniors Diego Garcia and Logan Montgomery.
Montgomery scored both goals in a 2-2 tie against West Mesquite on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Wylie East began its season with a 1-0 win over Rockwall on Friday.
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