Lady Tigers Soccer ready for battle with Kaufman in Mexia on Thursday

March 20, 2025

By Tony Adams

The Belton Journal

The Belton Lady Tigers Soccer team enjoyed another successful season, taking home a District 16-5A championship..

Belton head coach Oscar Bersoza always challenges his teams in the pre-district schedule, which commonly includes Frisco’s Dr. Pink Classic in Dallas, the Governor’s Cup in Georgetown, and added on the Burnet Tournament in January. The Belton Lady Tigers Soccer team enjoyed another successful season, taking home a District 16-5A championship.

“This is the first time since my first year in Belton that I scheduled three tournaments but that is due to our much smaller district schedule,” Bersoza said. “We had plenty to figure out pre-district with regard to personnel. Since we graduated two kids last year, we had to reshuffle our backline, which was not easy but feels like we are in a good spot now. All things considered, I felt we sputtered along during tournament season and actually ended up with a pretty good tournament record against some tough opposiition."

The team quietly put together another district championship, going 9-0-1 in District 16-5A, having outscored opponents 54-1. With having just a six-team alignment for 2024-2026, it is an advantage to have a 10-game schedule.

“MUCH more of a challenge with a more compressed schedule,” Bersoza said. “This district schedule is one of the toughest and had the most parity from top to bottom in my time in Belton. We did attend a third tournament so that we could fill in some more games. Adding another tournament is always a gamble because recovery is much less as opposed to the alternative of having games on Tuesday/Friday. But we needed to find games."

In Bersoza’s view, the strength of the Lady Tigers is in the defense. 

“I think the biggest strength of this team is it’s work rate out-of-possession,” Bersoza said. “We don’t always do it well but it’s one of the things we do pride ourselves in and work hard at - defend!”

From the looks of District 15-5A, it appears that Midlothian Heritage or Kaufman would be Belton’s opponent in the bi-district round. Bersoza feels that the new Division I and II playoff schematics has playoff planning in an interesting light.

“D1 and D2 has really changed the post-season match ups,” Bersoza said. “It worked out for us this year that we will play a four-seed and semi-get rewarded for winning our district. That reward comes with a nuance that we are in Region 2 this alignment.

The Lady Tigers will play on Thursday at 6 pm at Blackcats Stadium in Mexia..

“Region 2 is tough! Our Bi-District round takes us north into the metroplex to a tough bi-district match up,” Bersoza said. Any team out of District 15 is going to be a difficult match up!”

Belton’s senior class had a ton of experience, not only in pre-district and district circles, but in the postseason as well.

“This senior class does have plenty of experience,” Bersoza said. “They have been involved in a ton of playoff games, and Tori (Lucksinger) and Ava (Itz) have played max minutes in every one of those playoff games. We have relied heavily on this senior class to lead the way, pull a big load, and as we say “be shade providers” for our underclassmen. In keeping with the “shade” analogy, these seniors have also worked to help our underclassmen grow in their own right."

It is a senior class that has a valuable one to the foundation of Belton Lady Tigers Soccer.

“Finally, in addition to being good soccer players, this senior class is tight-knit, and really great kids! I will miss them a ton when the season ends... Lord willing that will be several weeks from now,” Bersoza said.