Stellar Debut: Mustangs open playoffs with solid win over Rockwall-Heath

Sachse appeared to be a slight favorite heading into its Class 6A bi-district playoff game against Rockwall-Heath, based on both seeding and overall resume.

The Mustangs lived up to that and more in a thorough 4-0 victory over the Hawks on Friday at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.

Sachse (16-2-2) advances to the area finals where it will take on Belton at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Palestine High School.

The opening round of the postseason featured no shortage of upsets, but the Mustangs left nothing to chance, applying pressure from the start.

It did not take long for that to pay off, as Paige Baumgartner collected a loose ball and slid her shot past the keeper to take a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute.

After a couple of near misses, Sachse was able to add to its lead when Baumgartner sent a nice pass past a pair of defenders to Storm Harris, who dribbled around the keeper and buried the shot in the net to make it 2-0 with 15:10 left in the first half.

It remained that way until halftime but not much longer than that, as a little over five minutes into the second half, Isabella Savaterre tracked down a deflected ball and drilled a 21-yard blast into the upper left corner to extend the advantage to 3-0.

The Mustangs struck again a short time later when Savaterre’s crossing pass found Harris, who collected the ball and flicked a shot into the net to make it 4-0 with 29:36 left.

Rather than fall back, Sachse continued to attack and the margin of victory would have been greater if not for the play of Rockwall-Heath keeper Maddie Mueller, who made several point-blank saves.

The Mustangs dominated possession and finished with a 17-2 edge in shots on goal.