Reagan boys soccer won District 27 after missing UIL Class 6A playoffs last season
At the end of the 2024 season, Reagan forward Bernie Gordoa knew things had to change. Reagan had missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2004-05 season, not including the 2019-20 postseason that was cancelled due to COVID-19 .
But Reagan has stormed back this season, winning the District 27-6A regular season title last week with a clutch 2-1 win over Brandeis. “I think we matured a lot as a group,” Gordoa said. “We learned a lot from last year, and I think we just have it inside ourselves that we want to prove something this year and make things right from last year.” The Rattlers were down 1-0 at halftime against the Broncos before goals from Gordoa and midfielder Jesus Carrillo, who also had an assist, secured a win. Reagan enters the postseason with an overall 10-6-5 record and 9-2-3 district record. The Rattlers are bearing the fruit of last season’s struggles that came from fielding a young team. “Last year we had a bunch of underclassmen,” Reagan coach Gilbert Villarreal said. “ we were able to return about nine starters, and so I think we’re just a little mature this year. We had some players last year that hadn’t really ever played high school soccer before.” The Rattlers face Brennan Bears at 6 p.m. Thursday at Comalander Stadium in the first round of playoffs. The winner of Thursday’s game plays Cedar Park Vista Ridge or Del Valle in the second round. “We’re just excited to be back in the playoffs and we’re looking to see what we can do,” Villarreal said. With a majority of last year’s starters returning, the message for this season was clear. “The main difference is just kind of trying to make right what went wrong last year,” Villarreal said. “It’s been a long time since we hadn’t made playoffs, and it was extremely upsetting to all of us last year.” The Rattlers’ new and improved mindset was tested early in the season as they tried to figure out their identity. Reagan went 1-4-2 in out-of-district games to start the year. “We had some tough games in the beginning,” Villarreal said. “We were trying different things at that time too, and really just trying to figure out who we were. And it’s always good to go and travel to play tough teams.” For example, Reagan traveled to the Houston area in January for the Katy MOJO Showcase, where it took on Katy Seven Lakes in a 2-0 loss. Seven Lakes was last year’s UIL Class 6A state champion. Despite a slow start to the season, those tough games showed Reagan how it needed to adjust ahead of district play. “Going into district, we changed our formation a little bit and things kind of fell into place,” Villarreal said. The beginning of the season also gave Reagan some mental motivation to clean things up for district play. “It definitely humbled us,” Gordoa said. “It definitely put our feet in the ground and it kind of motivated us to really turn things around for district.” Reagan’s current record is a clear sign of improvement from last year, and the stats show how the Rattlers have been able to take better advantage of scoring opportunities. “It’s an old saying but the hardest thing in soccer is to score goals,” Villarreal said. “And we just really struggled scoring goals. Last year, we had a lot of opportunities and we just struggled scoring. That was the one thing that we tried to focus on. It’s hard, but luckily enough, we started scoring some goals this year and I think that’s been the difference.” So far, Reagan has scored 44 goals this year while allowing 19 goals. Reagan scored 38 goals last season and allowed 26. And for Carrillo, a senior, getting back into the playoffs this year means more. “As a senior I’ve been trying to motivate my team and help them to achieve what we all want,” he said. “I think that’s primarily the thing – there’s more seniors that know the feeling of not making playoffs and that’s motivation for us to keep going.” This year’s district title, Reagan’s tenth in program history, is also the first of Carrillo’s high school career. “I feel pretty excited because I never had the opportunity to win district,” Carrillo said. “So it’s a great feeling for me. my last season, winning the district and having the opportunity to go and win state with the great team that we have.” While the results are showing it this year, the Rattlers believed that they always had the pieces to succeed. “I think we have the group,” Gordoa said. “I think we’ve always had it inside ourselves. I think we’ve always been a good team. We have really good players. But I think the big part is the mentality. Wanting to win games, wanting to be number one. Just having that winning mentality was the big change we needed to make.”
District Brandeis Broncos UIL Reagan Rattlers Bernie Gordoa Jesus Carrillo Gilbert Villarreal Katy Seven Lakes COVID-19 Seven Lakes Houston Comalander Stadium Del Valle Cedar Park Vista Ridge Katy MOJO Showcase Class 6A Brennan Bears
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