After a three-goal lead was nearly squandered last Friday, Sealy junior Amador Lopez scored his hat-trick goal on a penalty kick and classmate William Forrester provided a header goal off a throw-in from fellow junior Tanner Ellis to seal a 5-3 victory over Harmony School of Discovery for the Tigers’ third District 20-4A win in a row.

Sealy notched its fourth district win in a row over Columbus Monday by a 6-2 score and will travel to Navasota Friday. The Tigers close the first round of district play next week against Bellville and Royal.

Last Friday, Sealy led 1-0 at halftime and added two goals to its advantage in the second half but did not keep its foot on the pedal which allowed the visitors to hang around according to head coach Joshua Kirton. Three quick goals from Discovery and the game was tied with around 10 minutes left in regulation and the head coach used a stoppage in play to communicate a message to senior goalkeeper Brayan Aviles.

“I pulled him aside and we had a little moment and I challenged him because I wasn’t happy with the way we were playing at the time. I said, ‘We were up three-nil and took our foot off the pedal, you have ten minutes to go out and win this game and you have to go out there and want it more than them and it’s going to come from in here,’ and I pointed to my heart,” Kirton said. “Super proud of that effort in the last ten minutes where they were able to be resilient and go out there and take the victory possibly from the jaws of defeat. I’m super proud but not satisfied overall with how it got there.”

Forrester agreed the Tigers’ play dropped but they heeded the message of their coach.

“We just started playing bad and the defense needed to start focusing and getting our heads back in the game then coach gave us a talk basically saying that and it helped put us back in the game,” Forrester said.

It was Forrester’s second goal of the season with only 2:40 remaining that served as the final nail in the coffin that secured the victory. Ellis ran in on the near sideline around the three-yard line and found Forrester a few yards in front of the net where “I was seeing the man on me and he just wanted to stand behind me, so I kept moving back and forth between him and finally got behind him, jumped up and hit it off the back of my head,” Forrester said.

“(Amador’s) first two goals were absolutely fantastic, and he has that capability so I was glad he was able to produce that because it’s just going to build his confidence even more. He’s a great leader for our team so all of this is just helping him become a better player overall. And also, a shoutout to Tanner Ellis, he scored his first goal tonight; he’s a huge assist provider and I kept telling him to just keep plugging away because his opportunity was going to come,” Kirton said. “Now that he’s got the first one in the bag, he’s going to get some more. William Forrester getting his second of the year, I had been screaming at him all match to get to the near post, he finally gets there and he gets a goal so it’s just the little things like that. I’m happy we were able to get the victory, (Discovery’s) a great team, they’re going to cause a lot of teams problems in the future.”

Sealy had its first four district games scheduled at home and Kirton said the challenge issued to the team was to win all of them and the Tigers did just that.

“I’ve challenged the boys that all these games are at home that we’re going to defend our home turf and they’ve answered the call,” the head coach said. “Couldn’t ask for a better start, couldn’t ask for a better group of kids; I love them all to death, they do everything I say and they work their tails off so I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”