By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Moapa Valley High School Girls Soccer team uprooted a visiting Equipo Academy team in a match on Wednesday, Sept. 7 played at Jeff Keel Stadium. The Pirates shut down the Yeti in the match with a final score of 4-0.
During the first half the score stayed tight between the two teams. MVHS senior Talli Fairchild eventually broke through for a goal, putting the Pirates up by one at the half.
But Brooke Sherwood broke the game wide open for the Moapa team in the second half. The senior performed a hat trick scoring three straight goals which led to the final score.
The Pirate offense saw one assist apiece from Hannah Fullmer, Abbie Hammons and Callie Bennion in the game.
Moapa keeper Savannah Burt held strong against a couple of good shots from the Yeti offense.
“Savannah showed up for the game,” said MVHS Head Coach Lisa Cornwall. “She was coming off a bit of an injury but you would never know the way she played. She held strong.”
Cornwall said that the team has been developing and learning to work together well.
“We are always working to improve on certain things as we go into each game,” Cornwall said. “Afterwards we do a little look back and see where we got in the game and we seem to be reaching our goals each time.”
The Lady Pirates face some challenging teams in the upcoming week.
On Tuesday, Sept. 13 the Moapa girls will travel into Las Vegas to play against SLAM, a non-conference opponent. SLAM has only played three matches this summer and has won each with high scoring shutout victories. Cornwall said that the Bulls are a bit of an unknown quantity at this point in the season.
“I don’t think we even played them at all last year, so we are not entirely sure what to expect there,” Cornwall said. “But I think the girls are up for it.”
Then on Thursday, the Pirates will host the reigning 2021 state championship Pahrump team.
Last year the Moapa team competed in the Southern Region playoffs and just missed the final round when they were beaten by Boulder City in the semifinals. Boulder City went on to be bested by Pahrump making the Eagles the second southern seed at the 2021 State Championships.
Cornwall said that some of the older Pirate players are still remembering the smart of all that.
“We are looking forward to meet Pahrump,” she said. “There is a little bit of an opportunity for the girls to sort of redeem themselves. But they will be a tough team and they will challenge us.”
That game will be played on Thursday at 6 pm in the Jeff Keel stadium.
