Lady Raiders honor seniors, cruise past Royse City
Published 12:14 am Wednesday, March 12, 2025
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Tyler Legacy closed the high school soccer regular season with a dominant 8-0 victory over Royse City on Tuesday night at Red Raider Field.
“We obviously would’ve liked to have a little more of a challenge, but our girls were up for playing,” Tyler Legacy head girls soccer coach Chris Woodard said. “I don’t sub a lot during the year if it’s a close game. They don’t get to play much, so they were really excited about getting to play tonight. And they went out and played well from the get go and got them down early.”
Before the game, the Lady Raiders honored their nine seniors — Aisha Touray, Alicia Tovar, Mia Ledesma, Brianna Garcia, Lily Beckham, Alaia Privett, Karli D’Spain, Lizzie Parker and Cielo Garcia.
“They’re fantastic,” Woodard said. “They are very good teammates. It’s kind of a great deal because you don’t have it all of the time where they’re selfless. Even if they’re not playing, they’re cheering for other people. They work hard in practice. They don’t make excuses and pout when they don’t get a lot of time. They’re good players. They could start for a lot of other teams in this East Texas area.”
Legacy scored in the first 15 seconds of the game with a goal by Garcia. About four minutes later, Beckham scored her first goal. Ledesma scored on an assist by Garcia to make the score 3-0 just 10 minutes into the contest.
Less than two minutes later, Garcia scored again. The Lady Raiders then went nearly 23 minutes without a goal as junior Bella McNeil scored with 5:44 left in the first half to push the score to 5-0. Just 39 seconds later, Beckham scored her second goal of the night to put the score at 6-0 at halftime.
Early in the second half, Legacy got its seventh goal as Parker found the back of the net. Garcia then completed her hat trick with 26:17 on the clock.
The game ended at 8-0 with about 20 minutes remaining.
Garcia had three goals, and Beckham had two goals in their final game on Red Raider Field.
“It was sad at first,” Beckham said. “It was really crazy being that the last four years were so great and a journey with this team and all of the other seniors from playing freshman year to now,” Beckham said. “It was great to get a win with them this last game here.”
Now, the Lady Raiders (14-5, 9-3) enter the playoffs on a five-game winning streak.
“I think it’s good we’re on a winning streak heading into the playoffs,” Beckham said. “I think as a team we’re so close, and we’ve gotten so much growth this year, and we’re ready to try to get past that first round and make a run from there and show everyone that we can win more games than they think we can.”
“We are playing really well,” Woodard said. “I’m excited for some of the things they’re doing on the field. They’re playing really quick. They look good. They’re making good decisions with the ball.
“We’re playing a really good team in the first game. They’ll be like us. They’ll be strong.”
Legacy opens the playoffs against Wylie East likely on March 21. Royse City finishes the season at 6-15 overall and 1-11 in district.