Editor's note: This story was originally published on March 29, 2017.
SACHSE -- Alyssa Guzman considered not playing soccer this season after witnessing an accident that killed her father on Thanksgiving morning.
But when memories of the crash caused by a suspected drunken driver heighten her grief, Guzman turns to teammate Abigail Westin, who knows exactly what the senior is going through.
Westin, a Sachse senior captain like Guzman, also lost her father in an automobile accident. The two deaths occurred less than a month apart.
"We talk a lot," Guzman said. "If she needs me, we FaceTime and we make sure we're OK."
"Anytime that I have an issue or I'm sad, I call her," Westin said.
District 10-6A champion Sachse (23-1), ranked No. 21 in the nation by TopDrawerSoccer.com, plays Tyler Lee in a second-round playoff game that was moved from Thursday to 6 p.m. Friday at Homer B. Johnson Stadium in Garland because of state testing. This is the time of the year that Jason Westin would have been heavily involved.
"He always helped decorate for playoffs, and he was always here when they needed people to help with anything," Westin said of her father, who died at 46 on Oct. 27, 2016. "He was my best friend. He was involved in the soccer program here and the soccer program I was involved with outside of school. He was involved in everything in my life."
Jason Westin was killed in a traffic accident on LBJ Freeway, according to Dallas Police Department records.
Sachse opened its season with a moment of silence to honor Jason Westin and Guzman's father, Samuel, before the team's first scrimmage. They were also recognized during the Senior Night ceremony that their daughters were honored at.
Senior Grace Defoor said the tragedies have brought the team closer together, but it hasn't been just the players who have rallied around Sachse's captains.
"When everything was happening, the funerals and all of that stuff, every parent said, 'What do we need to do?' They have a big support system, and not just the kids, but the families as well," Sachse coach Kristen Campbell said.
Samuel Guzman, 41, died after he was struck by a car while he was on the side of the road filling up his pickup after it ran out of gas, according to the Department of Public Safety. Paul Thurber, 51, from Richardson was arrested and charged with intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle. The case is pending.
Alyssa Guzman had driven her father back to his stranded vehicle, and the truck she was sitting in got side-swiped before her father was hit on Bush Turnpike in Garland. As she called 911, she didn't think she was about to lose the man who served as the manager for her FC Dallas Youth club team and was at all of her high school games.
"After I got off the phone with the operator, it didn't seem so hard. I thought everything was going to be OK," Guzman said. "But we got to the hospital, and they said he didn't make it. That's when things got pretty hard.
"I didn't know if I wanted to play high school [soccer]. It's been pretty hard because he's not here. It's hard to cope with."
Guzman stuck with soccer and will go on to play for Eastfield College. Westin didn't consider sitting out her senior year after missing her junior season because of a torn ACL. The two defenders have helped Sachse allow only five goals all season, and they have combined to score seven of the team's 111 goals.
"Knowing what they're going through and seeing them come to practice every single day with good attitudes and be hard workers and be leaders ... it's really amazing to watch," Campbell said. "They are so resilient."
The widows of Westin and Guzman declined to comment for this story. But Samuel Guzman's children went on television and spoke out against drinking and driving.
"This can raise awareness and save somebody else from making the same mistake or save somebody else's dad, somebody's brother, somebody's son," Guzman's oldest son, Sammy, told CBS Channel 11.