The Sealy Tiger boys’ soccer team wrapped up non-district play with a 3-1 win over the Giddings Buffaloes Monday night at T.J. Mills Stadium thanks to second-half goals from Amador Lopez and Ricky Avila to complement a strong defensive effort.

Sealy finished its non-district slate with a 3-5 overall record after a trio of losses at the Huffman Tournament last weekend and will travel to Hempstead this Friday to open play within District 20-4A.

On Monday night, Giddings tied the game at one goal apiece with less than 10 minutes to play in the first half following Bryan Aviles’ goal that put the Tigers in front early. Going into the second half, Sealy head soccer coach Juan Perez said he made some adjustments and it paid off nearly eight minutes into the period when Lopez found the back of the net.

“We had a problem scoring but I talked with Ricky and told him you’re not going to play alone anymore because we don’t have the players we used to have so we have to play different,” Perez said. “In the second half I sent Amador to the front.”

To accompany that switch, Perez also turned to key players at the midfield position who he said made the difference in the game.

“I was looking for more aggressive midfielders and I think I got them. Carlos Reyes and Max Medrano made the difference, we went over and made a big stop,” Perez said. “Then we had two defensive midfielders and then on the sides I have two guys running like crazy, Tanner Ellis and Fonsi Avalos – everyone on the edge made the difference.”

Holding things down in the middle of the defensive end was Angel Guerrero who built a formidable defense in front of Tiger goalkeeper Nicholas Reichardt that was only blemished on a corner kick.

“The defense made only one or two mistakes which is amazing,” Perez said. “Angel stopped every chance they had except the one time on the side. They played pretty good and we switched a little, I have Adrian Arriaga and Max and some others I’m still evaluating.”

Sealy begins the fight for playoff positioning this Friday on the road in Hempstead against a Bobcat squad that recently fell 4-0 to the same Giddings team the Tigers took down earlier in the week.

Perez saw the win as a big boost coming off some tough losses against some stiff competition in last weekend’s tournament at Huffman’s Falcon Stadium.

“Confidence,” Perez said of his biggest takeaway Monday night. “I talked with the guys and said we only had two varsity players from last year playing during the last game on Saturday so we have to be better because that’s what we have, but they played super well tonight.”