Houston Area HS Boys Team to Watch: Tomball

<p>The high school soccer season is back in Texas as since the middle of December, teams from the Lone Star State have been active in scrimmages and non-district matches as they prepare for the start of the matches.</p>   <p>There's a lot of fine-tuning to be done between now and the start of January, when district matches will begin, and we at Prep Soccer Texas are excited to follow another season of play and report on the top teams and individual standouts in our state.</p>   <p>As we prepare for the start of what should be another exciting four months of high school soccer in Texas, we'll feature some teams from the Houston area that could be poised for strong seasons.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tomball</h2>   <p>The Tomball Cougars from Tomball will enter the season determined to go further than they did last season, when they were second in District 15, but couldn't make it past the bi-district round in the playoffs, ending their campaign with a 12-7-4 win record. The team lost many seniors to graduation, including goalkeeper Angel Sanchez, defenders Keegan Goytia and Blake Hinke, midfielders José Mario Flores and District MVP Luis Martinez and forwards Dylan Dunn and Charlie von der Meden. The Cougars, however, continue to have a solid core, with sophomore Reece Gabriel in goal, juniors Anthony Betancourt and [player_tooltip player_id='319282' first='Antonio' last='Basile'] and sophomore Kenzo Fujigaki leading the backline, seniors Diego Caballero, [player_tooltip player_id='15802' first='Ander' last='Gonzalez'] and [player_tooltip player_id='16309' first='Jayden' last='Montgomery'] and sophomore Colin Glaze dictating the pace in midfield and junior Maxsen Pregeant leading the attack.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Key Players</h2>    <p class="text-gray-700">Montgomery will play a big role in Tomball's offensive system, helping the team create and finish chances. He's an attacking midfielder who knows his way around and inside the penalty box, moving well off the ball and consistently getting into good spots to make plays. Montgomery is very good at dribbling the ball, combining excellent pace and a strong ability to protect the ball. He's technically sound, capable of passing, dribbling and shooting with either foot and is an excellent finisher, who can score goals from distance with powerful and precise shots. Montgomery can also make a difference by dropping deeper and finding his teammates with passes in behind the backline.</p>    <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oiv4zM5wfMg </div></figure>    <p class="text-gray-700">A teammate of Montgomery at both high school and club, Gonzalez is a technical midfielder with excellent vision and quality on the ball. He likes to operate centrally and takes his time on the ball, picking the right option for each play and connecting excellent passes. Another of Gonzalez's strengths is his ability to infiltrate through the middle in off-the-ball runs. As he's an excellent finisher from mid-range, that consistently generates good goalscoring opportunities for his team. The midfielder is very hard to dispossess because he always keeps the ball very close to his feet and is very quick to stop and go and to change directions.</p>    <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMK-WXWWLls </div></figure>    <p class="text-gray-700">Glaze is another talented midfielder from Tomball, making of that area of the field one of the team's main strengths. A lefty, Glaze is extremely technical and sees the game very well, often connecting one-time passes that find teammates in good spots. Because of his background in futsal, his dribbling is very creative and unpredictable, making things hard for defenders who try to stop him. Glaze also gets into the penalty box very efficiently, finding good spots to get on the ball and firing precise shots to score goals.</p>    <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img src="https://prepsoccer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2024/08/IMG_6545.jpg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-213046" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Challenge United ECNL RL B09 vs. Challenge United East USC TX RL B09</figcaption></figure>

The high school soccer season is back in Texas as since the middle of December, teams from the Lone Star State have been active in scrimmages and non-district matches as they prepare for the start of the matches.