The Tri-City Express U-19 girls racked up 20 goals at the South Texas Youth Soccer Association western district tournament last weekend, easily winning the championship with a 3-0-1 record. Pictured above (back row from left to right) are River Hooks, Tori Hawthorn, Megan Mason, Lucy Wolfram, Dayna Noonan, Elizabeth Hawthorn, Bre Lindeman, and coach Clay Harrington. Bottom row are Kelsey Wilcox, Paige Esplana, Angel Waters, Sarah Pillow, Jacky Lovejoy, Alex Rodriguez, and (center) Kassie Carpenter. The Tri-City Express U-19 girls' team scored early and often in its tournament games over the weekend.

The end result was a 3-0-1 record, 20 goals and one district championship.

On Saturday in Cedar Park, the Express opened the South Texas Youth Soccer Association western district tournament against the Kingsville Sparks in the first of three matches scheduled for the day.

It took Jacky Lovejoy less than a minute to put the Express on the board, as she took an Angel Waters pass and sent it flying into the back of the net. A mere 16 minutes later, Lovejoy added to the lead when she took advantage of a bobble from the Sparks goalkeeper and converted the miscue into a two-goal cushion.

The match continued in the Express' favor as Paige Esplana, Waters and Kelsey Wilcox all netted goals in a 5-0 shutout victory.

A short while later, the Express returned to the pitch for a match against the Alamo Area Wildcats.

Just 17 minutes into the contest, Waters scored on an unassisted goal, sparking the Express to another shutout win, 4-0.

By the time the match was over, Lovejoy, Waters and River Hooks all tallied scores for the Express.

In the third match of the day, the Express hooked up with the Rio Valley Celtics from Harlingen who proved to be stiff competition despite a slow start.

Once again, the Express jumped out to an early lead, scoring 16 minutes into the match when Wilcox assisted Lovejoy on a goal. The Lampasas girls maintained the one-score advantage for 52 minutes until the Celtics answered, tying the match at 1-1.

But the tie was quickly broken.

Five minutes after pulling even, Hooks regained the lead for the Express by poking the ball past the Celtics' goalkeeper on a breakaway opportunity.

The momentum swung once more, however, as the Celtics made the score 2-2 less than a minute later.

Both squads battled to regain control, but darkness set in, and the match ended in a draw.

"The Saturday match results were especially gratifying as the players competed for a total of four and a half hours without any discernible letup in effort, coach Clay Harrington said.

The Express returned to action Sunday when they faced off against the Bulverde Crush in the final match of the tournament.

It was an easy victory thanks to Wilcox, who scored five goals in a 9-1 thumping.

Waters found the back of the net twice in the contest, while Esplana and Kassie Carpenter also recorded one goal apiece.

With the victories, the Express improved to 10-0-1 on the season and now turns its attention to winning a state title this weekend at the STYSA state playoffs in Brenham.

Earlier this year, the Express won the state championship for the spring season.

"Overall, this weekend saw the Express turn in their best performances of the season," Harrington said. "Wilcox, Waters, Lovejoy, Esplana, Hooks and Lucy Wolfram paced a furious attack while Carpenter, Sarah Pillow and Alex Rodriguez turned in solid performances in the midfield."

Defensively, Tori Hawthorn, Bre Lindemann and Megan Mason were key in assisting Elizabeth Hawthorn protect the goal, added the coach.