PHOTO BY RICHARD AKRIDGE Sophomore forward Taylor Stephens advances the ball during the Lady Badgers’ season-opener against San Angelo Lakeview. The weather was not the only thing that was extremely chilly this weekend.

The Badgers and Lady Badgers suffered through some seriously cold play during their seasonopening matches at the Marble Falls tournament.

In freezing temperatures, Lampasas was stone cold, scoring just one goal between the two teams in a total of eight matches over two days.

The Badgers tied for seventh place by going 0-3-1, while the Lady Badgers placed eighth in the eight-team tournament after losing all four of their matches.

Despite the poor start to the season, both coaches feel certain it is just a matter of time before their teams get on the right track.

“The girls played hard, but we were playing shorthanded,” Lady Badgers’ head coach Mark Guszak said. “Like last year, we are starting off very slow, and that’s OK.

“[Three of the] schools we played were playoff soccer teams [last year], but still, we can play with them. We just need more time to develop and gain some experience.”

The Lady Badgers opened their season with consecutive 1-0 losses to San Angelo Lakeview and Canyon Lake Friday. The team went on to conclude their tournament run with a 3-0 shutout loss to Austin McCallum and 6-1 loss to host Marble Falls in the seventh-place match.

“The loss [to Marble Falls] was misleading because we had three starters out and were playing most of our players out of position to cover for it,” Guszak said. “Make no mistake, if we have all of our starters, we beat them.”

The Badgers also played without their regular rotation.

“We played the tournament with a mixed varsity and junior varsity squad,” Badgers’ head coach Greg Porter said. “Defensively, the team improved throughout the tournament and limited St. Michaels to only two shots in the final game.”

Lampasas finished tied for seventh place after playing to a 0-0 draw with St. Michaels Saturday afternoon.

Even with the winless record, the Badgers received a lofty honor as goalie Alex Rininger made the alltournament team.

The Badgers opened play with a 1-0 loss to Shoemaker before wrapping up Friday’s play with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Mustangs.

On Saturday, the team fell to Copperas Cove in a six-goal shutout before tying St. Michaels in the final match.