While it was hardly a stellar performance on either side, Tuesday in Corinth the Broncos ended their year with a 2-1 win over Lake Dallas.

The victory is Denton’s fourth in their last six games and puts them in second place in District 11-4A heading into the state playoffs, which will start on Tuesday against Saginaw at 7 p.m. at Flower Mound High School.

Much of the play during the first half was on Lake Dallas’ end of the field, but neither side was able to produce much of anything. The Falcons’ only three attempts on goal were from senior Logan Stewart. The other two of Lake Dallas’ shots were blocked immediately.

Denton junior Chris Torres, who had the Broncos’ lone attempt on target, came closest to scoring when his shot from 10 yards was blocked in the 28th minute.

Head coach Scott Heffley was unpleased with his team’s sluggish performance in the opening 40 minutes.

“It was a very poor performance in the first half,” Heffley said. “Speaking to them at halftime, [I told them] I don’t ever remember us playing as poorly as we did that first half. The really disappointing part was that [Lake Dallas] had a couple good players, but outside of that they flat-out outworked us. We didn’t do anything to challenge them…. I flat-out called Chris Torres out and said, ‘We need more out of you.’ We depend on that guy, and he’s a big, strong leader for our team.”

It didn’t take long for Torres to respond. In the 43rd minute, junior midfielder Feliciano Amaya delivered a cross into the box from 40 yards out on the touchline. The ball bounced off junior Zach Alspach and senior Michael Husbands until finding Torres, who banked it in off the crossbar.

Nineteen minutes later, however, a Lake Dallas throw-in from Stewart was propelled into the box, where it pinballed around to senior Marco Subias. Subias did not miss with his header, tying the game with 18 minutes left.

Denton was back on the attack quickly though, with junior Jose Herrera leading a break into the opposing penalty area. Lake Dallas keeper Chance Pope tried to aggressively stop Herrera’s run by going after the ball, but the senior collided with Herrera and two of Pope’s own defenders. No penalty shot was called for, though, as the ball came out to a trailing senior forward Sam Re Calderon, who had little difficulty with an empty net ahead of him. Re Calderon’s tap-in proved to be the decisive goal of the contest.

While he’ll always take a win, Heffley felt that the game could’ve gone better.

“This definitely wasn’t one of our best performances,” Heffley said. “I felt like the players kind of felt like we’d made the playoffs even though nothing was guaranteed.”

The 4-2-4 (12 points) Broncos’ first-round matchup will be against Saginaw, who finished third in District 12-4A at 7-1-4 (18 points).

“I know that they come out of a very competitive district like we do,” Heffley said. “They’re going to play a full 80 minutes. We’ve talked with our team since early on in district that we feel like if we play the level that we’re capable of, we have the greatest influence on the outcome of the game. When we play Saginaw it’ll be no different. They will be a very good team, but it’s up to us to take the result if we want it.”