Posted: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 11:42 AM - 13,357 Readers

By: Brenham Banner Press

LEANDER, Texas - The Brenham Cubette soccer team got a taste of what the playoffs will bring next week, concluding their regular season with a 0-0 tie against Leander Vandergrift.

Brenham, which won the District 40-4A championship, tied a Vandergrift team that finished third in a brutal district that included Cedar Park, Vista Ridge and Austin Lake Travis.

“Skill-wise and speed-wise, they were a lot better than what we’ve been seeing,” Brenham (14-6-4) coach Brandon Kluck said. “Playing a 5 p.m. game, with the time change it was really like playing a 4 p.m. game and the temperature was in the 80s so our kids got tired faster, and playing a better team got them tired too. It was good. It was what we needed.”

The Cubettes were scheduled to play at Dripping Springs in another warm-up game on Tuesday, but have cancelled that because their bi-district playoff game has now been scheduled for Thursday. Brenham will face New Caney Porter, the fourth-place finisher out of District 39-4A, in a bi-district game. The time and location will not be announced until Monday because the teams would like to play at Conroe’s Woodforest Bank Stadium but cannot get confirmation until after spring break ends. If Woodforest Bank Stadium proves to be unavailable, the teams will likely flip a coin to determine whose school hosts the game, Kluck said.

Regardless of where the game is played, the Cubettes expect to be ready. Vandergrift out-shot them 11-10 in a contest that was the wind make a big difference in time of possession. Vandergrift had the wind at its back in the first half and out-shot the Cubettes, but Brenham took more shots after halftime, when the wind was aiding their cause.

“There was a lot of misjudging the ball in the wind,” Kluck said. “Whenever a team had the wind, it had a better chance to get opportunities in the box.”

Sophomore midfielder Sarah Gaskamp hit a shot that struck the crossbar and bounced just outside the goal, Kluck said, and the Cubettes had one goal waved off due to an offsides call.

Taylor Herrmann made five saves in about 60 minutes for the Cubettes, and Kat Frederick made two saves in the final 20 minutes.