The boys soccer team will compete in the first round of playoffs on March 25 against McKinney Boyd at 8:00 p.m. at McKinney ISD Stadium. The Hawks finished in second place in district behind Flower Mound.

“Last year was the second district championship we’ve won in school history,” head coach Matt Zimmerman said. “We lost 90% of our scoring from last year, so I knew [the team was] going to have some tough games ahead of us. I told the boys at the beginning of this season that I believed in this team. That I thought this team was built to repeat it.”

Although the team didn’t get first place in district, the Hawks have a chance in the playoffs to show their skills.

“We’re focused right now on getting through practices because we don’t want to get knocked out in the first round,” outside left back Cortlen Wiley said. “We may not have gotten first in the district, but we got second and made it to the playoffs.”

The team started the district season tying the first game 1-1 on Jan. 23 against Marcus and ended districts with nine wins, two ties and three losses.

“This game is going to be great,” forward Nick Golovets said. “We [haven’t] played them [before,] so we are all pretty excited.”

In terms of preparation for playoffs, not much has changed from the team’s normal schedule. Zimmerman said the team knows McKinney Boyd will be a difficult game, so they are practicing more on scoring.

“We are trying to treat this game the way we would any other game,” Zimmerman said. “We don’t think that they’re any better or worse than anyone we’ve seen all year.

Wiley said that he has high hopes for the team in playoffs, and is sure that the team can beat McKinney Boyd.

“We started the season off pretty bad with a loss, but that just made us try even harder and it all worked out,” Wiley said. “Now, we are in the playoffs, and we are definitely hoping to get far.”