ROUND ROCK -- The Bryan Lady Vikings had big dreams. Round Rock Westwood had bigger players.
The talented and physical Lady Warriors controlled play throughout their 3-0 victory over Bryan on Friday in the Class 5A Region II girls soccer semifinals at the Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex.
Junior Mikayla Engel, a 6-foot-2 junior midfielder, scored the first of her two goals on a well-placed free kick. From right of the penalty area, Engel bent a wind-aided shot high toward the far post. Bryan goalkeeper Ana Meyer had trouble deciding where to play the ball, stepping back across the goal line. The ball slipped through Meyer's hands for the first score, exactly 5 minutes into the second half.
"I'm not going to lie," Engel said. "I thought it was going to go out, but I think the wind helped me. My teammate [Aly Tucker] followed it, and it went in."
The ball had actually cleared the line before Tucker redirected it, but Engel was willing to accept it as an assist. Playing soccer like a point guard -- a big, Magic Johnson-like one -- Engel effectively distributed the ball to her teammates to keep the pressure on Bryan.
"They are big in the middle," Bryan coach Amy Pettibone said. "The better team won, and that's all there is to it. We played hard, fought them as long as we could. We made a couple of miscues, but they had a couple of well-placed shots."
With impressive speed and superb ball skills, the Lady Warriors stayed on attack, but until two late Westwood goals, the Lady Vikings kept themselves within reach.
Then Westwood blasted in two more in the final 5:15 to ice the match. Engel all but clinched it with a 30-yard drive into the upper right portion of the goal to give Westwood a 2-0 lead.
Tucker's corner kick set up the final goal, with the ball bouncing back to Katie Barrera, who wasted little time putting it in.
"That last goal by Katie Barrera was amazing," Engel said. "It was upper 90, and it was beautiful."
Westwood (18-5-4) advanced to a Saturday morning regional final against The Woodlands, which dispatched District 12-5A champion Belton in the second semifinal 3-0.
Bryan ended its most successful season with a 19-9-2 record.
"I told them that we will not be defined by our last game but by our season, and the seniors will be defined by the legacy they left," Pettibone said. "There are big shoes to fill next year, but they've given the girls a taste of what it's like to be here. They've seen what the best teams look like."
Under overcast skies, Westwood faced the wind in the scoreless opening half, but the Lady Warriors had far more chances, getting five corner kicks. Bryan tested Westwood's starting goalkeeper Natalie Gardini just once. From 35 yards out, Jessica Chicas' free kick forced Gardini to make a last-second punch over the goal.
Gardini played the first half and fellow senior Kristin Wright was in goal for Westwood in the second. Both contributed to the shutout, but only sparingly.
The Lady Vikings could rarely penetrate the challenging play of Westwood's midfield and defense. In the second half, Sierra Garcia received a long crossing pass, but Wright grabbed her long-distance header into the wind, the only shot on goal she faced.
Westwood's best chance in the first half came in the 11th minute when Engel delivered a cross to Kelcie Roosken. Meyer was caught midway between her goal and the ball, and Roosken had room on either side but hit the crossbar with her shot. Bryan finally cleared the ball after a long scramble in front of the goal.
Roosken nearly raced onto a ball with 4:50 left in the half, but Meyer read it perfectly and darted in front to grab the pass.
Meyer made two diving saves to stop second-half shot attempts to deny Emily Jorgens, but the Bryan goalkeeper fell in traffic in front of the goal once, with the Lady Vikings still within a goal. That forced Allison Kalinec to block and clear the ball for Bryan.