Falcons closing in on district title: Zamora’s hat trick propels Lake Dallas boys past Denton; Lady Falcons remain alive in playoff hunt with 1-0 victory

The Falcons inched closer to clinching the outright District 7-5A title after defeating Denton, 5-2, from Falcon Stadium. All that Lake Dallas (14-4-3 overall, 8-2-1 district) needs to do to seal that fate is to defeat Birdville on Monday night. The Falcons are one point ahead of Grapevine (7-2-3), which hosts Richland, also on Monday.

“These guys talked at the beginning of the season about what our goals are going to be,” said Brandon Martin, Lake Dallas head coach. “They said that they want to try to win district and make the playoffs and make a playoff run. Winning district would be a pretty phenomenal feat, especially considering where we were the last two years.”

Monday’s game was played at a fast pace with lots of scoring chances for both teams; but in the end, it was three goals and one assist by junior forward Stanley Zamora and two tallies by  senior captain Avery Brazzell that proved to be the difference.

Denton tried to spoil senior night for Lake Dallas. Sophomore forward Chris Guillen scored in the seventh minute of a low shot inside the right side of the net for a 1-0 Broncos lead.

The Falcons answered just over three minutes later. A bad pass by the Broncos led to a one-on-one situation between Zamora and Denton’s goalie. Zamora won the battle, dribbling past the Bronco keeper and kicking the ball into the net for a 1-1 tie.

Zamora was lethal inside the box all night. He had another scoring chance get saved after he struck the ball with his left foot after a beautiful service from Brazzell. But Zamora kept at it, scoring twice more in the second half as Lake Dallas scored four times in the game’s final 40 minutes to break a 1-1 halftime tie.

Lake Dallas took its first lead of the night in the 44^th minute. Zamora fired a shot from a few yards away to give the Falcons a 2-1 advantage.

Not only was Zamora was a threat to score every time that he touched the ball, he, as well as his other Lake Dallas teammates, made great lead pass after lead pass. The Falcons’ quickness was on full display. Zamora made a great touch pass to Brazzell, who dribbled up the right side and scored in the 49^th minute to increase Lake Dallas’ lead to 3-1.

Lake Dallas thought that it had scored in the 52^nd minute, but Zamora’s attempt at a hat trick hit inside the left post but didn’t cross the goal line. Denton countered and scored two minutes later, bringing the Broncos to within 3-2.

It remained a one-goal game until the Falcons blitzed the Broncos with two goals just 69 seconds apart. Zamora completed his hat trick with 13:15 remaining in the ballgame and Brazzell made it 5-2 Lake Dallas with his second goal on the night.

“Avery is like a beast on the field,” Martin said. “He can go from zero to 90 in a pretty short amount of area. Stanley is more controlled, but he does a good job of linking up play and bringing people into the attack.”

LADY FALCONS BLANK BRONCOS

Sometimes, all you need is a lucky bounce – even if it means bouncing off a body part that you don’t expect.

In what was a defensive-minded game between Lake Dallas and Denton, the ball bounced off the face of Lady Falcons senior forward Dawson Marrs in the 52^nd minute. She told herself, “I’ve got to kick it into the net.” Marrs did just that, kicking it over the hands of the Bronco keeper. And it proved to be the only goal that Lake Dallas needed in a 1-0 victory.

The goal was Marrs’ team-leading 10^th tally of the season.

“She’s clutch,” said Nathan Davis, Lake Dallas head coach. “She’s scored more than one game-winning goal for us this year. She’s a solid player all the way around, and when she needs to step up, she’s not afraid to.”

The Lady Falcons shut out the Broncos despite giving up a couple of near breakaway attempts to Denton forward Zari Santos in the first half. But Marrs created multiple scoring chances, as did senior midfielder Grace Read and freshman forward Anissa Garcia.

It was a huge win for Lake Dallas (12-9-2, 7-5-1), which remained tied with Colleyville Heritage (10-6-3, 7-5-1) for fourth place in District 7-5A. The Lady Panthers rallied for a 2-1 victory over Birdville. All the Lady Falcons need to do to clinch a postseason berth is to beat Birdville on the road Monday. Lake Dallas defeated Birdville in a shootout in the teams’ first meeting this year.

“We knew coming into this season that it was going to be tough to make the playoffs,” Davis said. “Losing Northwest and gaining Argyle made it a little tougher on us. It’s a five-horse race for four spots. Hopefully, we can finish strong.”