by Austin Coats, sports editor

When Chris Kovacs left A&M Consolidated to coach the newly-built College Station High School, he took senior Steven Smith with him.

His mistake was leaving senior Daniel Zivney with his junior-varsity coach, Stefano Salerno. Zivney scored 18 and 25 goals in his sophomore and junior years with Consol, leading the team both years. Despite an ankle injury which has halted his amount of playing time, this season might be his most rewarding, as the Tigers have become undefeated district champions with two games left.

And they did it the first year they had College Station High School in the same district. As fate would have it, the final match between the two would be the decisive one — with a win, or a tie and a Rudder loss against Huntsville, the Tigers would be district champions.

Appropriately, Smith scored the first goal of the match, a header off of a corner in the 17th minute. The Tigers didn’t fall apart, though, and passed as well as they have all season against any team (70% pass accuracy). With a minute left in the half, Consol’s patience was rewarded with freshman Cade Williams’ header, assisted by Zivney’s throw-in into the box.

The Tigers continued passing well (65% accuracy in the second half), and for the most part dominated the Cougars, but couldn’t break the tie, as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Then confusion set in. The players hadn’t won the game, but they were nonetheless celebrating. Somebody had told them. About thirty minutes earlier, Huntsville had done Consol a favor and beat Rudder 2-1 at home.

With matches against Livingston and Rudder remaining, Consol now sits at the top of the district with 32 points, an undefeated 10-0-2 record. Their 5-0-1 home and away records beat their previous highs through Salerno’s three seasons as head coach.

You can see the Tigers play again as they host Livingston in their final home game on Thursday, with a special tribute to the seniors and parents of the team.