Pirate Girls Back On Track

By GANNON HANEVOLD

Moapa Valley Progress

The 1-2 Moapa Valley High School Girls Soccer team came into last week with two games on the schedule. The first of these came against the struggling Chaparral Cowboys in a road game played on Tuesday, October 2.

The Cowboys haven’t been able to find their grounding early in the season, and the Pirates hoped to capitalize on those flaws. The Pirates would win thematch 4-0, with a pair of goals in each half.

Scoring for the Pirates was Lainey Cornwall from her spot on defense and sophomore Makayla Baldwin fresh off of the JV team just a week earlier. However, Italia Bracamontes led the team with two goals of her own, kicking off what would be a big week for her individual statistics. Kyra Larsen also led the Pirates in goal with a shutout.

Despite the box score, Coach Cornwall was underwhelmed with the performance. “We beat them 4-0, but I was not happy with that,” she said. “Sometimes my team tends to mentally play down if a team is not up to their level, and that’s kind of what they did.”

On Thursday, the team hoped to ride the momentum of the victory while learning from its imperfections. The Pirates returned home for their first meeting with the Boulder City Eagles, a squad tightly fighting with Moapa for a playoff seed.

Early in the first half, the Pirates struck first. Italia Bracamontes set up a corner kick that landed perfectly on the foot of Kaitlyn Hopkins for a one-kick volley and a score. The Pirates led 1-0 at the half.
In the second half, the Eagles began taking the confidence and momentum back, winning multiple pivotal balls in the center, and then scoring to tie things up.

Later in the half, the Pirates missed several close shots on goal, including their best opportunity of the game via a penalty kick by Lainey Cornwall.

Lucky for Cornwall, her younger sister delivered the goal she sought out just moments later. Ellie Cornwall came in from her defensive spot to score from deep.

With just minutes left in the game, Sierra Staheli scored off of a corner kick to put the last decorations on a rivalry victory. After an intense ninety minutes, the Pirates would win it 3-1.
“I think it sets us off exactly where we need to be,” said Coach Cornwall. “Now they’re starting to get into a groove and work together. Being able to come together and play Boulder as well as they did, it’s now up to them walking onto the field to decide whether they can do it or not.”

The coach also discussed the success of the corner kick plays drawn up for two goals both assisted by Bracamontes. “Against Chaparral, we had nine corner kicks and none of our goals came from those, and that is not like us,” she said. “During the week, we practiced those and made sure everyone was on track and it proved beneficial.”

The future remains bright for the Pirates as well, as the JV squad beat both the Eagles and Cowboys, and added a victory over Arbor View 6-0 on Friday as well.