BOYS SOCCER: Panthers beat Rebels with possession

MIDLAND Preparing one way and playing another didn’t work out very well Saturday for Permian High School’s boys soccer team.

Fortunately for the Panthers, they had a second 40 minutes to atone for their ways — and the opening 40 didn’t sting too much.

Michael Freeland’s goal just more than a minute into the second half didn’t hurt, either, as Permian bounced back from a halftime deficit to beat Midland Lee 3-1 in a District 3-5A showdown at Grande Communications Stadium.

“Coming into the second half, Coach (Luis Carmona) told us that we need to get back on our feet,” Permian sophomore defender Caleb Almanza said. “We knew if we put one in, that our momentum would change. We put one in and the momentum changed around for us.”

Freeland tied the game 1-1 in the 42nd minute by scoring off an assist from Esai Cortez and the Panthers (9-5-1 overall, 4-0-0-0 district, 12 points) were on their way to staying alone atop the District 3-5A standings.

Christian Korner put Permian ahead to stay in the 51st minute with a slick finish off a pass from Edgar Galindo. Korner played the ball perfectly to his feet after corralling the pass off his head before sliding home a quick shot.

Erick Vega closed the scoring for the Panthers by heading in a shot during a goal-mouth scramble.

“All week we worked on a game plan of possessing, and the first half I think we were just trying to be real direct and send balls through,” said Carmona, the Panthers’ eighth-year head coach. “Against a team that’s as well-skilled as Lee, I think we’ve got to possess the ball as long as we could and that’s one thing we talked about (at halftime), just finding the open space. I think it worked out.”

Lee (3-6-2, 2-0-0-1, 6 points) is now tied with Abilene Cooper for second place after the regulation loss.

The Rebels took a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute on a clinical finish by Kaegan Davis off a nice pass from Derek Sanchez.

Permian goalkeeper Brett Becker then made a stellar one-on-one save in the 30th minute when Sanchez had a chance to give the Rebels a 2-0 lead.

“The guys picked up the effort in the second half and we finished the opportunities we got,” Carmona said. “The thing is, we need consistency. We know that we’ve got the skill to compete and it’s just overall, the way everybody performed in the second half was very well done.”

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