Joshua defeats Jackets at home

JOSHUA — The Cleburne Yellow Jackets started Saturday night’s game strong, but Josua rebounded to score three-straight goals on the way to a 3-1 victory in District 15-4A play at Owl Stadium.

“They just basically wanted it more than we did,” Cleburne head coach Randy Allen said. “In my opinion, that’s what the difference was. It’s always hard to play here. The field’s not very good, and it’s very narrow compared to everybody else, but we know that and we both plan on it. They just responded better than we did. They wanted it more than we did, so they deserved to beat us.”

Cleburne’s Halston Spohn scored the Jackets’ goal with 38:55 remaining in the first half to give Cleburne the early lead.

Spohn’s goal came on a header off a free kick.

The Owls knotted the score on a header with 16:50 left in the first half.

The Jackets had an opportunity to reclaim the lead when Juan Olivares scored an apparent goal with 6:40 on the clock.

The officials huddled for a few minutes and disallowed the goal because of a Cleburne penalty.

The contest was tied 1-1 at the half, before Joshua scored again with 29:52 to play to take a 2-1 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

The Owls scored another goal with 7:22 remaining in the match to give Joshua a two-goal advantage.

Joshua improves to 9-8-3 on the season, with a 5-2-1 mark in 15-4A play.

Cleburne falls to 10-8-2 overall and 5-3 within the league.

“It will definitely tell us what our character is because of how we respond and rebound against Granbury,” Allen said of Tuesday night’s match at Granbury. “If they beat us, they will be district champs after that game. They’re definitely going to be motivated. We’ve just got to bring our best game. I think we can do it.”

Tuesday night’s match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Pirate Stadium.