NATIONAL PREMIER SOCCER LEAGUE: West Texas FC hosting Fort Worth with regular season drawing to a close

MIDLAND West Texas FC got exactly what it needed.

Now, the team is hoping to continue its run in the final week of the regular season.

Coming off a crucial 6-3 win over Lone Star Conference-leading Denton, West Texas FC will host a pair of home games this week, starting with a midweek clash against the Fort Worth Vaqueros at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Astound Broadband Stadium.

The team will then host the Lubbock Matadors at 7:30 p.m. Saturday to finish up the regular season.

With the top four teams making the playoffs, the team finds itself tied for third at 5-1-2 with 16 points while Denton and FC Brownsville sit at 17 points.

The top four teams make the Lone Star Conference playoffs.

Currently, Lubbock is sitting three points behind West Texas FC in the standings as the regular season comes to a dramatic conclusion.

While Saturday’s game against Lubbock could be huge, West Texas FC head coach David Ormiston is only focusing on Wednesday’s clash.

“Obviously, it’s a big week with these last two games,” Ormiston said. “But if I’m being honest, our focus is on Fort Worth. We know the importance of this game. I’m really proud of the players and we’re taking it one game at a time.”

>> THEY’VE BEATEN THEM BEFORE: While West Texas FC is battling for a spot in the playoffs, Fort Worth will be playing just for pride as the team sits in last place in the eight-team conference at 0-2-7 with nine points.

West Texas FC defeated the Vaqueros 4-2 back on June 15 on the road but Ormiston and his players aren’t overlooking them.

“We have beaten them but they are a team that can hurt you,” Ormiston said. “They’ve put up a good fight. I think the league reflects with how good they are. We’re just hoping to get three more points from Wednesday’s game.”

The Vaqueros are coming off a 2-1 loss on Saturday to CF10 Houston FC.

>> PLENTY OF GOALS: Once again, there were no shortage of goals from West Texas FC as the team scored the most goals in a game this season in last Saturday’s victory.

Luke McCormick and Antoine Marques each had two goals for West Texas FC while Ethan Stevenson and Vander Rocha also found the back of the net against Denton.

“I think that’s something that we’ve talked about before,” Ormiston said. “We took care of our chances. It feels like if we can just find the target more and get everything in the back of the net, then we’ll have more scores like that. It was a big game for us. More importantly, we got three more points in the standings.”

>> REVENGE: Saturday’s win was also sweet revenge for West Texas FC as the team lost to Denton earlier this season on the road in a 3-1 contest back in May.

“It was a massive victory,” Ormiston said. “They’re really well-coached and they beat us earlier in the season. We knew in that game that we had more to offer and that we were confident going into this game that we could get a positive result. It proved to be true.”

With West Texas FC currently on a three-game winning streak, Ormiston feels like his team is peaking at the right time.

“We’ve talked about not peaking too early (in the season),” Ormiston said. “As the guys play with each other more and more, we’ve made things much easier for the guys. That’s been a huge factor. We’ve also been enjoying playing at home in front of our home fans and that gives us a big boost. All those factors, rolled into one, have been the reason why we’re on this run.”